Plastic Metaphors of Reality
Ignacio Rábago is an artist with a background in the humanities (Philosophy and Letters / Fine Arts) and an interesting body of work as a painter, especially on paper and wood panel, who has in recent years (1985/96) focused his work on the field of installations. His projects are at once simple and precise, requiring careful preparation concealed beneath an appearance of improvisation. In this way he ensures that nothing distracts us from the energy they release. Primary impulses, effectively handled, which have presence and convince without needing a theoretical discourse to support them.
His installations do, however, have a conceptual content, but it arises from their very centre so evidently that it often goes unnoticed (Hvor?, University of Copenhagen, 1988).
It is the fact presented that imposes itself, with simplicity and force. They are also often characterised by their spectacular quality. Minimalist in its premises, his work is maximalist in its development. His installations have something of the circus about them, which varnishes a rigorous method with humour. Very strict, almost classical in this respect, Ignacio Rábago always starts from the space where he works, using materials found nearby or directly related to it.
Yet his individuality does not dissolve into its surroundings; it ends up dominating them. Classical but subversive, he takes on the skin of the place and attacks our vision of reality from within. Trojan horses offered to us as gifts, his works end up affecting our memory of the place where they are installed. It is no exaggeration to describe his installations as “plastic metaphors of reality”.
Plastic metaphors in which that reality has been subverted.
Tension (De Vonk, Amsterdam, 1987), gravity (Attacking the Vertical, Odense, 1989), order and chaos (Angles, Measure of Chaos, Copenhagen, 1991) are recurring concerns in his work, which he approaches through poetic intuition (First Prize for Poetry of the Spanish Institute for Emigration, 1985).
It is the insistence on these antagonistic characteristics – which in his work do not act as contradictions but as complements (rigour–humour, intuition–analysis, classicism–heterodoxy, etc.) – that makes Ignacio Rábago a personal artist with a recognisable style; something that is not common in a field such as that of installations.
Copenhagen, 9 September 1996