Rosario Bond

Rivera Bond has made a grand return to her native land and her spiritual roots with her -until now- most comprehensive solo show in a representative institution. Curated by Milagros Bello and organized by the Museum of Modern Art, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic, the splen- dor and “mirror-image” effectiveness of the body of works in the exhibition “Simplemente una ilusión” (“Simply an illusion”) are reflected in a series of works which, from my point of view, are “basic” hits in Rivera-Bond’s multifaceted production of the last ten years.

I am referring to paintings of amazing chromatic vitality such as Stroll through Life (2008), The King and I (2008), Shopping Spree (2008), All my Friends Series V (2009), The Public Speaker (2009), Wishful Thinking (2009), Caperucita Roja (Red Riding Hood) (2011), In the Sky with Diamonds (2011) and Crazy About You (2011), these last two from the ongoing series “Diary of a Shopaholic” and on which Milagros Bello has commented: “The large format painting shows an immense palimpsest of feminine articles and of images of women cut out from magazines. The artist incorporates perfumes, lipstick, necklaces, underwear, recreating in a satirical way, the world of women and their insatiable quest for beauty and physical perfection”.

To these “axial paintings” are added other sculptural reactions of remarkable polyvalence of meaning and with which Rosario Bond provokes the viewer’s reflection on the feminine condition in the midst of the rituality of the everyday chaos of the post-metropolis, “irradiating us” from the hallucinating exquisite quality of sarcasm and irony. From the series “Beautiful Trash”, the exhibition incorporates the sculptures entitled Adam (2010), Eve (2010), The Finalist (2010) and Beautiful Trash IV (2009), while from the series “Golden Trash”, Woman with No Voice, Sunday Supper, Golden Water, La Gallina de los huevos de oro (The hen that laid golden eggs), De Cabeza (Head first) and La caída de Superman (Superman’s fall), all made in 2010, may be highlighted.

In her maddening sculptural reactions of polyvalent metaphoric effectiveness, Rosario Bond uses the resort of recycling in a brilliant way. She materializes each piece like a kind of metaphoric “accumulation” of unequivocal “post-Dada” inspiration, combining and manipulating materials and objects such as wood, wire mesh, skin, resins and synthetic fibers; plants, flowers, roses and strawberries; textiles, mirrors, feathers, tinsels, pearls, precious stones and costume jewelry (rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets); wrapping paper, sunglasses, photos of “top models” and celebrities; wigs, lingerie dresses, sponges, combs, crowns and a surprising proliferation of “natural gadgets” of contemporary feminine cosmetics.