What I Found in the River
By Julian Balboa // Contributing Writer
Art Basel, and as you may have heard, was absolutely crazy. A woman got stabbed, a police officer killed someone, A$AP Rocky might be going out with Kylie Jenner, but at the end of the day, it’s all about one thing: the art that is littered throughout this great city every year spanning over three neighborhoods. There were galleries all over Wynwood, Miami Beach, and Midtown. Some were rather large, taking up entire convention centers and large tents. Some were as small as a storefront in a plaza you’d pass if you weren’t paying attention.
One such gallery open for the public was hosted by Made at the Citadel called Found in the River and featured a variety of artists who were as prideful of their pieces as the gallery that hosted them.
It really is a little tough to spot without a GPS, but once you have it mapped out, you’d have been just fine. Over 500 people visited the event that weekend, which is pretty amazing considering the small space. The music was already in full bloom when I took my first steps in the room. The interior design of the gallery was contemporary, but it suited the atmosphere of everything going on. Long Shore Drift, a very tight, catchy, fun band with the majority of it’s members still in high school (and one even in middle school), was busting out a cover of “Boys Don’t Cry” by the Cure before diving into original songs that had the crowd’s heads nodding.
After their performance, I took a personal tour of all the art hung on the walls. I noticed familiar names, and not because they were well-known, but it was a ‘friendly’ kind of familiar. That’s when it made sense: “I actually know these people. They went to FIU!” This may have not happened to most people who had come to the event, but for some FIU students, they may have had a friend who’s art is featured in Art Basel’s many events. Found in the River just so happens to feature a nice proportion of FIU students showcasing their artistic talents, canvas or performance.
As I turned from corner to corner of painted and mixed media art, I reach the performance art room and vendors. It was the largest room in the building and rightfully so. One such artist, who only went by Carlos, a Marketing Major and Art Minor at FIU in his second year, was preparing for his performance piece that involved weightlifting. He dressed in full weight lifting attire and laid out the weights on the floor to corresponding size and color, but that wasn’t what was interesting. What was really interesting was his choice of background, beginning with visuals and ending with music. He had created a wooden box, removed the fourth wall, and painted it with a purple, hazy, ethereal, nebulous setting drawn on it. He also played inspirational pump-up music, as a lot people who work out do, that built itself up from the minute it started until the climax of the performance came after all the weights he laid out were added to the bar. The vision of this piece, I feel, comes from the performer having to prove to himself that he can do anything he sets his mind into and has the strength to get through anything, even if he were trapped in the confines of space. “The concept of this piece is basically me trying to bridge art and weightlifting and showing people that even though it’s something that’s typically very masculine, you can express yourself through colors and art and shapes.” He says about his concept.
Another artist at the event, a photographer, brought his photos to life after being printed on canvas. Vincent Rivas, an Advertising Major at FIU in his last year, said, “These photos, all taken at hip hop concerts from this year, were meant to make the person watching feel as though they were at the concert themselves and have the most immersive experience without actually having been there.”
It’s very difficult to attend everything at Art Basel. One must plan your Basel weekend out as if you were at a convention, because the truth of the matter is that you absolutely will not see every piece of art being shown. It’s a shame to think about for a minute, but reality sinks in and one will realize that it’s okay. You’ll have enjoyed what you saw and cherish the memories. Funny thing is, that’s just how it is at the individual galleries. Trying to describe everything that went on at Found in the River won’t do the event justice and one can never will truly experience everything that it had to offer. To do that, you just had to have been there.
Photo by Cindy Rays.
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