War and Peace

Whether they are conveying notions of humanity’s tyrannical appetites or highest aspirations, Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz know how to deliver an unforgettable show. The conceptual collaborators are two of the Big Mango’s most successful talents, whose room-engulfing installations, created from discarded clothing, evoke hot-button topics affecting contemporary society. Working under the poetic moniker Guerra de la Paz (War of Peace), the duo uses its Little Haiti studio and surrounding environs, where businesses recycle mass-market apparel, as a springboard for insightful commentary on issues ranging from rampant consumerism to Third-World poverty. Their last project, at Praxis International in Wynwood, buckled knees with an installation evoking death camps and genocide. This Saturday at the Center for Visual Communication, the cerebral tag team will veer toward the ineffable with a provocative, space-swallowing vision of a world that balances rose-colored expectations with a darkly menacing cyclone. The interactive exhibit challenges viewers to walk under a massive rainbow crafted from recycled items of clothing — all while a tempest of gloomy gray and black fabric, in a discomfiting work called Ascension, whirls overhead. The wildly contrasting yet complementary elements are a potent reminder of the diversity of everyday life, organizers say.
Saturdays, 12-5 p.m.; Tuesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: Dec. 17. Continues through Dec. 31, 2011