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Jorge Pardo (Retrospective)

This research is a series of retrospective exhibitions, entitled ‘Jorge Pardo’. The retrospective provides a conceptual re-evaluation of past research to depict a broad spectrum of new work ranging from sculpture and installations to design and architecture. A prominent feature of each exhibition is the use of the ‘palapas’ (pavilion like structures, from the Mayan word meaning ‘pulpous leaf’), in which domestic materials are presented in a non-domestic space, thus prompting a re-evaluation of space by the viewer. What could have been a passive experience, the museum retrospective, was turned into a new body of work, which was developed through the way the ‘palapas’ choreographed the visitors experience as it led them through my creative development. These ‘palapas’ traversed a range of disciplines, making no hierarchical distinction between painting, sculpture, installation, architecture or interior design. Social interaction was a key concern throughout the retrospective, in which I used furniture and coloured lamps as a means of transforming everyday spaces into aesthetic environments. On entering the retrospective the viewer was taken on a journey not only through my career but also through a social history of my adopted city, Los Angeles, with headlines from the LA Times and photographs of exhibition openings and the architecture of Los Angeles. The retrospectives included the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2010) and at K21, Dusseldorf (2009). In support of the travelling retrospective Phaidon Press published a catalogue ‘Jorge Pardo’ (2008). Using the formal structural conventions of a catalogue, this book became a live embodiment of my work resulting in a 5-way conference between the writers, including myself; Rachael Thomas; Alex Coles (art critic); Shumon Basar (architect, writer and curator) and Shamin M. Momin (Founder/Director of the Los Angeles Nomadic Division; LAND).