Dentro (in) (1998)
Cibachrome
93.5 x 93.5 cm framed
BA Collection
Inventory No.: 1998.23.1
Since the 1990s, Gaüeca has used photography as the main medium to explore contemporary human identity, treating it as a social construction, a fabricated ‘self’, often through irony, fetishes and references to kitsch. In Dentro (In), one of the most prominent elements is the pink house, on which ‘pinky’ is written: it can refer to the colour pink, but also to a nickname for someone, often suggesting tenderness, smallness, or a distinctive trait. Accordingly, the house acts as a kind of toy to remind us of the artificiality of the scene, and that allows Gaüeca to question the construction of identity, the influence of cultural objects and the way in which stereotypes and media culture shape our perception of reality.
After graduating in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country where he majored in sculpture, Miguel Ángel Gaüeca (Bilbao, 1967) began in the 1990s to explore how identities are constructed in a hypercapitalist society. He uses autobiographical fiction, references to art history, and the very dynamics of the art world, to reflect on hierarchies, power, and value – both economic and social – and how these forces shape individuals and collectives alike.