Daniel Ruanova, "TERROR-IST," 2009, acrylic on canvas, 52" x 61".
Tijuana-based artist Daniel Ruanova has been exposed to the reality of violence along the border of his country and the US. Ruanova makes sculptures of melted plastic toy guns and other appropriated found objects that look as if they may be superhero doll parts and images of pretend violence from comics and other pulp sources. The result is abstract forms that jumble and collage half recognizable 3-D references to all the ways we celebrate violence as play, violence as entrainment both in drug dominated cultures and in so called advanced ones. Because much of his materials come from Pop culture, there is a sense of playfulness on a first read, and then a kind of dread when we realize how early in life we begin this intense relationship with destruction for its own sake.
Published courtesy of ArtScene
