Juan Cruz
2 October – 7 November 1999
This was the first large scale one person show by this acclaimed young artist. Cruz’s work uses a variety of media including slide projections, texts, performance, drawings and sculpture.
Drawing on his Spanish childhood and current home in the East End of London Cruz’s work engages with a changing sense of place and the art of storytelling and translating. The work in the exhibition explored, among other things, an eerily deserted Spanish fishing village whose evocative buildings gradually reveal a wealth of hidden histories, and the theatrical nature of the gallery space with its potential transformation into a mischievous classroom, a fascinating library or anxious waiting room where unexpected experiences might unfold. In his work Cruz uses the textures and colours of the gallery walls, as well as its acoustics and sense of light, engaging the viewer in a heightened experience of the space they are in as well as creating new imaginary realms.
Juan Cruz was the Kettle’s Yard and Girton College Artist Fellow from 1999-2000.