Erik Parra
Scouring local resale shops and thrift-stores I mine vintage, popular books and magazines for pictures and printed ephemera related to the development of modern America. I generally look for images that feel familiar and can open up psychologically challenging questions about modern experiences of space. I am particularly interested in images fertile with possibilities for subtle narrative or contextual contradiction. I cross reference this found material with related, compositionally appealing images pulled from the internet to create imaginative yet rigorous collages, drawings, paintings, objects and installation.
Drawing from both vintage and contemporary images allows me to create new spaces for productive critical reflection by challenging easy readings of time and place. I advocate for the viewing of contemporary concerns, related to notions of mobility and success, through the lens of history. I like to think of this as sort of, checking in on present conditions of the American dream.
Working with contrasts such as meticulous/random, large/small, black and white/color; I create spaces in which scientists, beauty queens and professional athletes can engage in productive democratic experiments. I cultivate imaginative, moral, (without being didactic or dogmatic) and inspiring visual experiences that draw upon palpable narrative and formal tensions. Relationships of line, volume, weight, time, and space in addition to a host of other variables (some controllable and some contingent), all affect success, progress and ultimately our lives as we revel together in beauty inspired by things often considered dark.
C.V.
review
radio interview
Drawing from both vintage and contemporary images allows me to create new spaces for productive critical reflection by challenging easy readings of time and place. I advocate for the viewing of contemporary concerns, related to notions of mobility and success, through the lens of history. I like to think of this as sort of, checking in on present conditions of the American dream.
Working with contrasts such as meticulous/random, large/small, black and white/color; I create spaces in which scientists, beauty queens and professional athletes can engage in productive democratic experiments. I cultivate imaginative, moral, (without being didactic or dogmatic) and inspiring visual experiences that draw upon palpable narrative and formal tensions. Relationships of line, volume, weight, time, and space in addition to a host of other variables (some controllable and some contingent), all affect success, progress and ultimately our lives as we revel together in beauty inspired by things often considered dark.
C.V.
review
radio interview
