Enrique Castrejon: Artist Statement

Images of beauty, queer bodies, HIV, war, death, destruction and tragic current events are elements that inspire my work. I linearly dissect and cut appropriated images found in variety of eclectic media sources such as newspapers, magazines, advertisements and photographs, art books, Sotheby’s auction catalogs, porn, personal photos and online sources into smaller identifiable geometric shapes. I investigate and describe what I see through measurements. I transform this selected graphic imagery into quantified drawings mapped by measuring distances between points (x inches), at times calculating the varied angle degrees created within the shapes (360˚-A˚= B˚), and/or written data related to the image of each shape. The distances around the shapes are measured in inches and their corresponding degree angles are calculated with a protractor and calculator. These precise measurements abstract the image interfering and altering its fixed meaning, creating other possible interpretations through this linear dissection. The final results are written around the shapes creating an intricate explosive web of verifiable units. This repetitive and meditative process allows me to map out the drawing and reveal the invisible mathematical language found in everything. Also, in creating these fragmented and measured drawings from the cut up parts of the whole and reconfigured, I challenge our perceptions of what is real, forcing us to think critically about information that is constantly bombarding our everyday lives through images selected in directed advertisements, pop-culture sources, editorials and news stories found in printed and online media.

Enrique Castrejon lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Currently, a solo exhibition of his work, Axiom of Solitude: Investigations & Meditations, is on view at Bermudez Projects Downtown from September 28th to November 26th, 2013. Castrejon’s work is also traveling nationally in a group exhibition called Out of Rubble, organized and curated by Susanne Slavick, that looks at how artists have “reacted to the wake of war – its realities and representations.” Castrejon was also a featured artist and panelist on a KPCC 89.3 radio program, Air Talk with Larry Mantel on the topic of Chicano Art & Pacific Standard Time exhibit with participating artists and panelists Gronk, Patissi Valdez and Sonia Romero.