Cut It Out

Carlos Estévez has taken sacrifice in the name of art to an extreme. For the past several months, the artist has risked carpal tunnel syndrome or shearing off a digit while gearing up for the collapse of Western civilization. He has been manically clipping images from hundreds of magazines pillaged from every thrift shop in town for “Observatorium” at Alonso Art. The exhibit features two dozen eye-popping collages and several large sculptures.

The works in the show were hatched from a simple game. Just for kicks, the impishly playful Estévez went out on his birthday last year and gobbled up a cornucopia of books about science, mechanics, architecture, and history to slice and dice for research. Before long, he found himself with boxes full of cut-out pictures of bugs, buildings, celebrities, and a plethora of other pop cultural icons he dreamt up into artwork when counting sheep failed to lull him to sleep. Soon insomnia led to an epiphany and a reinterpretation of Noah’s Ark: a wooden steamboat the artist created and packed from bow to stern with the likes of Bill Gates, Paris Hilton, Melanie Griffith, and Dubya, our commander in chief.

“I also included Google guys, the pope, tycoons from Forbes 500, Hollywood types, and all the rich and powerful,” Estévez chortled when asked why there were no signs of lifesavers aboard his take on a world gone to hell in a hand basket.
Wed., April 19