Adrián Villar Rojas, Today We Reboot the Planet
by :
William Brereton
Adrián Villar Rojas. From the series Today We Reboot the Planet, 2013, Glass, steel, bricks, unfired native clay (unfired), cement, soil, wood, metal, stained glass, soap, seeds, shoes, bread, plants, potatoes, carrots, grass, wheels, jewels, stones, candles, watercolour, markers, pencils, seashells, glasses, bones, butterflies, soccer ball, plastic, Shelves (each): 195 × 66 × 360 cm. Installed dimensions variable. © Adrián Villar Rojas / Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo: Art Gallery of Ontario 2016/38
A sculptural replica of Kurt Cobain with plastic water bottles attached for “sustenance,” a potted plant on top of an unfired clay cast of a fish, and pieces of burnt toast juxtaposed with more cast sculptures of various birds: this is just a partial catalog of the objects inside Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas’s encyclopedic display, Today We Reboot the Planet (2013), recently on view at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Commissioned for Villar Rojas's solo exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London in 2013 and acquired by the AGO in 2016, Today We Reboot the Planet is a speculative cabinet of curiosities that questions one’s complicity in the ecological deterioration of our planet.
Elevated on a brick platform is a monumental stack of black metal shelves showcasing a collection of organic and synthetic items. The white cube gallery space surrounding the rugged installation adds an eerie, clinical vibe to the viewing experience. Many of the objects included in this dystopic survey, however, subvert the cool rigidity of their surroundings and challenge the idea that an artwork is inherently permanent. The live vegetation and unfired clay matter, for example, will decay or change over time. The work offers little solace, and Villar Rojas does not seek a didactic solution to the ecological crisis. Despite this, I feel awed to find life still in this cabinet. As the vegetation requires the curatorial team’s constant care and attention, the work is a poetic, perhaps even hopeful, mediation of Villar Rojas’s imagined future
William Brereton is an independent art historian and writer based in Toronto.
Art Gallery of Ontario, David & Vivian Campbell Centre for Contemporary Art
