Chants from Overseas – Samuel Sarmiento by Marjolein van de Ven
The work of visual artist Samuel Sarmiento (Venezuela, 1987) invites you to embark on a journey. Not to physical or existing places, but to what lies dormant in your own mind. The simply drawn figures and events on his richly decorated ceramic objects originate from various sources of inspiration: myths, historical and political events, movies, art, or current world news. The appeal lies in their narrative potential. In the resulting scenes, Sarmiento mixes time, place, and memory to create a new image that traverses all these dimensions. Thus, the work functions as a conversation piece: about where we come from, where we are going, and how we relate to each other and the world around us.
"My work is very connected to oral traditions, especially those from the Caribbean and South America. The symbols and archetypes used in these stories and how they can be connected to other cultures fascinate me. Stories bring us back to our roots."
Listening to stories was Sarmiento’s favorite activity during his youth. He is still an avid reader of magic realist writers like Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges. Through his art, he has now become a storyteller himself. Myths and stories from Caribbean and South American cultures hold a special place for him: Sarmiento connects with the gods and spirits and their symbolic meanings, giving them life in his work. He is also interested in the origin of stories and how they have changed over time, traveling in the minds of people who often, not through their free will, moved to different places. The purpose of storytelling within different cultures and its influence on our collective thinking and our relationship with the world around us intrigues him.
"I often talk about archetypes because the situations in different cultures are often related. If you were to open the grave of the Egyptian kings, you would find numerous pots with many precious objects to accompany the deceased. This shows that they had a different sense of time and that they believed information could travel to other worlds. It’s about creating memories, preserving information for the future."
While the delicate but unpretentious drawings that adorn Sarmiento’s clay slabs often originate from a specific story or myth, the finished works mix references from different sources. In a playful way, he combines a good dose of both humor and fantasy to reflect on themes we can all relate to. Human interaction is often the starting point. Sometimes Sarmiento refers to small gestures, as in ‘Untitled (The Kiss)’ (2024), where a simple act of affection or love becomes an archetype: "there is a reason why artists like Rodin, Klimt, and Brancusi made pieces about this simple action." In other works, he reflects on archetypes connected to the interaction within or between groups of people.
The work titled ‘The Odessa Steps’ refers to the famous scene in Battleship Potemkin, the Russian silent film made in 1925. Displaced communities fleeing from a superior force is an archetypal situation in humanity's history; it never stops repeating itself. Another work, ‘Infinite Processions’, is about how humanity is always in transit. No matter what country or community, people seem to be walking in circles, living their own lives and trying to fulfill their missions on earth during their lifetimes. "Everybody is doing something, even though sometimes it doesn’t make any sense. I guess that’s life." The procession I have depicted is drawn from a bird’s-eye view, referring to how Franz Kafka used to tell his stories as if looking at them from above.
Through his way of working, several meanings can be distilled from one work of art. Thus, he invites us to kickstart our imagination. The intention to engage the viewer reminds us of a quote by Borges: "So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers."
Some people say history is written by victors. When you try to get more information about groups that have been neglected for a long time, for example, the history of the gypsies Romani people during World War II, it seems like a fantasy story about a forbidden community. Often there are not enough references, and you need to speculate. I love to do that and bring these other histories back to life.
What stories get told, and who tells them? And how is this connected to our collective memory? Sarmiento uses his work to explore these kinds of questions. In his opinion, we need to recover the way we use our memory. Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel pinpoints the importance of memory for humankind: "You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all... Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing." Art and culture are steeped in memory.
"I like to look at historical paintings, for example, from the Golden Age or from the Spanish Empire, because the depictions give insight into the political references and opinions of that time, providing us with clues on why history enveloped the way it did. Besides that, I also really like science fiction novels because, while reading them, you can imagine the planet, the country, or the groups of people inhabiting the space, and the way they lived. I believe this gives insight on how to deal with situations we encounter in our current age, even though the scenarios might be totally different. I think if we use our imagination, it is possible to create new scenarios. I like to think of solutions, to think of how something that sounds like a fantasy could become reality."
In current society, we are overwhelmed by images and information, an endless stream we encounter both in public spaces and online. It makes us numb and makes us believe that keeping our memories alive isn’t quite as important.
Sarmiento believes our collective memory, in combination with imagination and the power of storytelling, is key to finding solutions to the problems we encounter. He brings past, present, and future together in his works. One of his current interests is the process of extraction humanity is entangled in: extraction of information, raw materials, and so on.
"Most valuable objects and materials are involved in the process of extraction. When you receive something made of gold or diamonds, you have to be conscious that the precious stone was found through blood and suffering. The same goes for drugs. People try to get access to a sensation, but every kilo of cocaine has ten deaths connected to it. People don’t think about that." A new work titled ‘Gold Diggers’, about a group of people looking for gold in the jungle, shows the duality connected to extraction.
Currently, the material Sarmiento mainly works with is clay, which for him is "connected to earth and represents the memory of places." He does not always have control over the clay, for example, when it is heated in the kiln. This inability to control the material, although frustrating at times, is also a virtue for Sarmiento. While painting on canvas, he can almost predict the result. With the clay, there is always a moment of surprise. This makes him eager to experiment more, to explore the endless possibilities of the material, and to seek the images he can extract from it. He is also interested in the relationship between ceramics and utilitarian art. This is reflected in several hats and crowns he creates, like ‘Crown to Attract the Loved One’ (2024). Once more, a crucial place is given to symbolism in these pieces: according to Sarmiento, these artifacts help us "see the future or achieve what we want or need."
The history connected to the clay used by humans also forms the inspiration for new work. ‘The Origin of Pottery’ is about a Caribbean legend on the beginning of civilization when keeping water was a challenge. They placed water in ‘mugs’ made out of leaves, which always gave way to problems. One day, the deity of the forest said: ‘go to the river, dig into the soil and you’ll find a different kind of mud’. What they ended up finding was clay. The deity then said: ‘now prepare a plate and put it in the fire.’ This legend seeks to explain how the Caribbean people discovered pottery. "I connect this story with the history of Chinese pottery, Dutch pottery, and the pottery of the Aztecs. This timeline shows when things happened, from the legend to the history of the pottery."
The exhibition ‘Chants from Overseas’ at the Aruba National Library provides an overview of recent work by Sarmiento. Overseas: is that from the Caribbean perspective? Or from Africa, America, Europe, or any other place in the world? The chants represented in Sarmiento’s work ask us to reflect and look at ourselves. With his melodious visual ‘voice,’ he dares us to question what we see, read, and hear, reminding us to always realize there are different perspectives. And, to never forget the power of imagination in giving form to and enriching our collective memory.
July 10, 2024
