Petri Dishes and Arthrax
Local Amherst artist Edgar Sabogal was born in Colombia, South America, where he lived for twenty-nine years. He moved to the United States nineteen years ago and received his BFA from the University of Massachusetts in 1992. Sabogal was a visiting artist in Medelline, Colombia in 2004 as part of Augusta Savage Gallery's new Art International Residency Program (AIR), that sends selected artists to international sites, where they live and work with gallery partners for one month. Upon their return, these artists begin working on an exhibit that will tell a story about their experience.
While in Medellin last year, Sabogal reflected on politics and "the sarcastic reality of recent plastic and duct tape scare tactics." The upcoming exhibit is his reaction to the recent anthrax scares. "Be a good boy or El Coco (Boogey Man) is coming through the window to get you." This was a warning used by parents in order to get control over their children, remembers Sabogal, as he reflects on his childhood in Medellin and its connection to current Homeland Security policies.
His Arthrax Petri Dishes are hand-painted clear, plastic covered dishes that are 4 inches in diameter. Each one is an original and unique piece. Stained glass paints are used to represent the culture growing in the Petri dish, whether it be scientific or political.
Sabogal says, "In this Arthrax work, I am looking for the ability of the observer to break through the fear of the object and go into the analytical observation of the concept. This artwork is as sarcastic as the concept of Homeland Security protecting us from any biological attack using a plastic bag over our heads and sealing it over our necks with duct tape. Arthrax is the classroom window to my political reality. The petri dishes are biological organisms of human manipulation. My forms are an integration of both reality and symbolic language; two dissonant languages which I juxtapose in order to create a more vibrant form of expression, similar to how Paul Klee combined both native and sophisticated intellectual elements and in my case, speculative political struggle."
