John Gerrard

From 7 February until 2 April 2011, Ivorypress Space I hosted an exhibition which featured the work of John Gerrard (Dublin, 1974). This multidisciplinary artist’s work combines new technologies with photography and poetic language, while also reflecting on political and social issues. Among the works on display were Cuban School (Sancti Spiritus), 2011—comissioned by Ivorypress—a work that deals with the actual situation in Cuba from an artistic perspective.

Through hundreds of photographs of a school on the outskirts of Havana, Gerrard constructed a 3D model and generated a software that allows the viewer to see the building from any distance and perspective. The work changes throughout the day and shows the lighting it would have in Cuba at the same moment we see its image in Madrid. The condition of the building, which still functions as a school even as it falls to ruin, is a way to speak about melancholy and to envisage the effects of time on structures, whether architectural or human.

Images: © Sebastian Marjanov. Courtesy Ivorypress