Projecte arbres IV

Tree project IV

The artistic career of Antonio Alcàsser (Tírig, 1963) started in the world of engraving, before evolving towards painting, with the use of new technologies through which he creates his own language in order to communicate with the viewer.

In his recent work, he has raised the mystery of ageing and the relationship between adults and children. It intuits a curious sensation between men and trees; a relationship between human beings and nature in which the trees become people and people become trees. Grandparents and grandchildren form a relationship of esteem and solidarity. The grandparents are our roots; the grandchildren, the protected small tree that will become older. Alcàsser therefore analyses these human relationships, which are projected in nature.

The interminable flatlands of Belgium (the 'flat land' as Brel called it) have, for personal reasons, become a habitual landscape for Antonio Alcàsser. The artist confesses that he is fascinated by a frequent image in this country: a large tree in the middle of a plain, flanked by a smaller tree. The artist has used this image to create a thought-provoking metaphor on the life journey of humans. If time makes us large trees, firmly rooted in the land, other offspring will begin to appear around us. New trees or ‘tree projects’ that will also become strong trees in the future. The complicity and affection that invariably unite alternate generations (in other words, grandparents and grandchildren) speak to us of the passage of time. As small trees grow around a hundred year old tree, generations of individuals succeed each other in an endless chain.

It is worth noting the expressive resource chosen by Alcázar to construct this discourse on the future of life. Video and audio tape is attached to the surface of the work to shape images. Faces and figures emerge between lines, as the result of the contrast of tones between the bands. Tapes which have been used to record sounds and images, which have stored events, in other words, black lines full of one’s own memory. Alcàsser has made this peculiar form of hybrid collage and painting his 'trademark'. A useful resource to make use of the inherent connotations of the material.