| Radiographic Traces
280 Days, 280 Movements
The work Tapando para ver (Covering Up to See) by Chemi Rosado Seijo resembles a large game of chess, where each move is a piece that uncovers what was previously hidden. However, as with any move, once executed, the impacts are delayed and often occur in the unconscious. Through this approach, Chemi Rosado Seijo reveals things that, concealed for various reasons, go unnoticed due to the overwhelming presence of the media, in which words and images play with the power of the unconscious, sweetened by the power of repetition.
Tapando para ver begins with 280 days of work, interventions, discoveries and the collection of advertising notes found by the artist in mass media. Modified with charcoal drawings, these notes only reveal part of the information and are then arranged like collages in newspapers, public bulletin boards and television and radio programming, which are subsequently distributed within the public space.
As with a move, seemingly harmless, made on a chessboard, we are constantly exposed to mass attacks that go unnoticed. Rosado Seijo rescues these movements and exposes them, covering everything superficial in order to reveal the sharp effect of the commercial objective, such as manipulations that call for action (call, ask, save, accelerate), eccentric manipulations (have fun, join in), and commercial values (freedom, homeland). In this way, what is present but might appear absent becomes more evident.
These products, in turn, are organised into large commercial kiosks that sell this influence, constructed so that the seller can continue their journey and supply themselves with new advertisements. Thus, propaganda is made to sell itself, creating an eternal cycle in which it recycles itself, perpetuating its own existence. This would demonstrate that “even culture is sold”, as the artist himself would tell us, and that the media exist for the media; they do not communicate, they control. We are, therefore, confronted with three contradictions: to hide in order to uncover, to store in order to distribute and to sell what sells.
Rosado Seijo’s work reveals an X-ray that captures, in time and space, the strategic movements of a commercial game, which in turn allows us to access our inner condition, what we ingest and the effect this has on our existence. Ultimately, it is about refining our gaze in order to reflect on the contradiction of reality itself – of the interior and the exterior – and to construct an anti-biography that encourages us to reflect on the formation of today’s society, the media and the new powers they create, and how we react to this reality.
Finally, this project marks the beginning of a very personal and intimate testimony of things that have impacted an individual’s daily gaze over 280 days, leaving a mark and a trace behind.
Michelle Marxuach |
