BLINDNESS | /ˈblīndnəs/ - Defined as the absence of sight; lack of perception, awareness, or judgment; ignorance.
The exhibition includes 11 works with a thought-provoking boldness that represent the most recent continuation of Javier Martin’s Blindness series. Behind the glow of spectacular neon stripes, tempting models are depicted. They have been taken out of their perfectly staged world of advertising. Their seductive glances hide behind vibrant lights and a direct eye contact with the viewers is impossible. The eyes, understood as the mirror of human emotions, are intentionally covered up, causing ambivalent feelings and challenging questions.
This exhibition encourages self-reflection. Martin uses sophisticated visual elements to stimulate the viewers curiosity, to let them question what may be hidden behind the lights and what blinds us. Through excellent artistic skills Martin combines painting and collage in order to detect the transformation of the natural daylight, and places it in a powerful battle with the artificial light. He takes us on a journey from poetic sunsets to sunrises, dark night skies and graceful twilights, and creates new allegories of natural light.
These works allow us autocritical questions: How strong is the blindness that comes from favoring unimportant things? Is a clear sight hindered by something or are we intentionally covering our eyes?
