José António Hermánez Diez is part of a strong generation of Venezuelan artists who emerged in the 1980s. His sculptures, photographs, and installations appropriate industrial materials, and common objects, often reconfiguring them physically, by inserting a philosophical and emotional resonance.

Taking advantage of formal association and metaphor, also, - Gulliver, 2004
recomposes a group of everyday objects carefully selected by the artist and inverted through their removal and placement into a new context. Constructed from a wooden block and a set of metal objects, resembling escalators, carefully placed on both sides of the sculpture's central block, the formal features of this work echo on the one hand the legacy of minimalism, tied to concepts of commercial availability and industrial production, while on the other, the consumption-driven condition, which determines our present. A theme, which has, together with the subject of globalization, shaped an essential part of the artist's oeuvre. The escalator, a symbol of shopping malls or airports, suggests mobility within the consumption nucleus, transporting invisible consumers into infinity. The absence of the figure, the scale of the work, and the work's title, suggests a community of dwarfs, passing on miniature escalators, surrendered to their private universe without glancing or acknowledging each other, shaping a powerful metaphor on contemporary notions of life. The works irony and subtle humour, characteristic of Diez's practice, are an effective tool of engagement, making the spectator complicit in the work's construction and interpretation.



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