Pedro Morales (Maracaibo,
Venezuela. 1958) is a pioneer of digital art in Latin America. “La
Mirada”, ca. 1989, done entirely in a PC 8088,
is one of the earliest documented digital art works in the region. It was
awarded first prize in a local competition where recycling was the main theme.
His installation “La Mirada” recycled memories of childhood homes; explored the
intimate spaces of the house, using newly found media. What was a statement
then, has been a constant presence in Pedro Morales’ work: the warmth of places
belonging to the heart, pushing the aesthetic boundaries of available virtual
reality technology.
For eighteen years, Morales´ investigation in the visual arts has kept the theme
of the house, the spaces and living beings in it, as centre of his digital work.
First, using fractal geometry to depict tile floors, religious icons, and
landscapes as seen from a window. The home that explains us as humans shown
using the beauty the artist laboriously carves out of technology.
Morales received the Investigation in the Arts award at the Salon Arturo
Michelena, (1991), among Venezuela’s most prestigious art competitions.. He
exhibited
solo at the Sofia Imber Caracas Contemporary Arts Museum,
(1991) and his work “Generación Fractal”, (1994) was awarded the
FAMA endowment for the arts, by the Polar
Foundation, the Grand Award at the 20th Aragua Arts Competition, (1995), and his
work “Images
on a wall” was shown at the Prix Art Electronica in Linz, Austria and
ARCO Madrid (2002).
Pedro Morales represented Venezuela at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, with
his milestone work “City Rooms”, virtual reality
created on and for the internet. It was censored by the Venezuelan government
for considering it offensive to the revolution. It was experienced however
(navigated) by thousands on-line. “City Rooms” is a high point in his work and
an icon in Venezuelan modern art.
Morales´ has deeply investigated stereography, through his own virtual volumes,
three-dimensional objects and figures freed from wires and screens, yet true to
their digital nature. Ten years have had to pass for Morales to show the outcome
of such research in his recent work. “Bordados Porno” is the result of a long
creative seclusion, a leap forward that dares set a new digital art’s frontiers,
a redefinition of the boundaries by defying the possibilities of virtual
reality.