Henrique Pavão Ghost Ranch

Label / Rialto6
Category / Records by Artists, Made in Portugal
Code / No Code

The pieces in this exhibition – Ghost Ranch and Bull Guitar Drag (after Christian Marclay) – are the result of a series of actions that took place in this specific location and during a period of six months. In complete solitude. One of the motifs of Western movies is the use of static, romantic views of the land, which function as premonitory moments that anticipate a gun fight or other kinds of violence. Throughout the dry season groups of vultures are often seen patrolling the skies, invading what is apparently a tranquil, beautiful and silent landscape, looking for food. During one of my walks, the scavenging birds led me to a bull skeleton. In the footsteps of Georgia O’Keeffe, I managed to collect a big part of the skeleton except for some bones that were carried away by wild cats, foxes, vultures and other animals. I made fifty-nine molds of every bone of this skeleton with my bare hands. These molds were then filled with the earth from where they were found, turning death into a resurrection. Every sculpture now carries the soil of a land on its way to extinction. Mold making is studio labor and, therefore, akin to playing an instrument. One tirelessly repeats the same movements with the goal of repeating the same shape forever. For many musicians, instruments are carriers and they are limited to a certain number of songs – contemporary pianist Nils Frahm, keeps on buying and selling keyboards until they run dry. The guitar has always been a McGuffin* inWestern movies – like in Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar. A cowboy carries a guitar strapped to his back, a replacement for his addiction to guns. There are two guitars in this exhibition. The first, a Fender Jazzmaster tuned to open D minor [1], was left alone on the red rocky soil, facing the rust of sundown with the west wind blowing over its metal strings, the sound is both melancholic and spiritual as the wind never blows the same way, thus creating different random melodies often interrupted by the landing of dirt particles and small insects on it. The instrument signals the dry air that killed the bull whose skeleton I found. This sound piece was the key for the project to unravel; the weeping guitar works as a soundtrack for the sculptures, scattered inside a vitrine without any particular order. This vitrine is meant to be walked over, as in many archeological sites, from the Acropolis to Teotihuacán. Contrary to these places one can also inhabit the ruins seeing them from underneath, like a corpse inside its grave. While the first guitar’s presence is phantasmal, represented by its sound, blasting out of two Marshall cabinets used in big stages, the second – a Squire Mustang – although physically present, carries a ghost of its action and its musician. In a long interview with Seán O’Hagan [2], Nick Cave reflects on his creative process mentioning that his songs always depart from images. See for instance the strong imagery behind Hollywood [3]: A mountain lion roaming Los Angeles’ valleys, with their big mansions, in the night. Much like songs, artworks can remain artworks in their suggestive state even if they are never materialized. Mike Kelley’s Monkey Island (1982-3) is a collection of plans, writings and references that inform the viewer on how the finished work would look like. Its spiritual aspect makes it even more interesting than a tangible version of the island. Bull Guitar Drag (after Christian Marclay), witnessed a failed attempt to record the sound of a 600kg brown bull dragging an electric guitar [4] along the very same fields where the skeleton of the other bull was found – there is no footage of the action, as the cameras were not set yet and only a ten-second sound recording is left. The bull defeated my work, destroying the guitar, playing at its own will. The animal is glorified to a godlike state, a hero, the musician I have always dreamt to be. This moment is now contained inside a destroyed electric guitar, like the soil inside the molds. This is now a relic as many other guitars sold in auctions for millions of dollars because they bear witness to historical moments [5]. Ghost Ranch is a Western; a duel, between life and death. It is my homage, my farewell letter, my gift to this landscape. My plea for forgiveness.

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Henrique Pavão Ghost Ranch

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