A career in graphic design led VIII to the decision to strike out into the great sketchy unknown, assume a full-time guise of mystery and reincarnate himself as purveyor of urban myths and fairy-tales – of which autonomous project Ocho Cuervos is the online journal. The tales that emerged, under the title of Cuentos desde el rincón más gris de la Ciudad form a digital universe of modern fables (“lonely characters, winged creatures and bottles of whiskey…”). The affixed illustrations appear as gloomy and glamorous etchings, a cross between the macabre of Maurice Sendak and the animal kingdom of Alice in Wonderland if it were drained of all color. Welcome to VIII’s contradictory relish and delight for gothic fantasy and raw sincerity, dark religious icons and stark realism.
With a fourth volume of printed Cuentos… imminent – a dainty yet deadly little piece of surrealist yarn-spinning which has found its way into art bookshops in Berlin and Barcelona – VIII is back on home turf, or as he puts it, “the ravens fly back to the nest.” To honor the countdown to the book release and accompanying exhibition, a special parallel project, El rincón más gris de mi ciudad features daily portraits of “family, partners, followers and friends” as they recount their own grey areas of the city. And with each tale linked to Google Maps, we are served a characteristic stab of digital realism along with VIII’s weird and bewitched vistas.
Mar 30 at 8pm
Book presentation at Loring Art (C/ Gravina, 8)
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