Dance with me, little bug. On "Passion and Ornamental Crisis" by Samuel Nicolle

Samuel Nicolle showcases Passion and Ornamental Crisis at guadalajara 90210's headquarters in the capital city. The exhibition is accompanied by a letter from writer Anaïs Lepage to the artist—a heartfelt piece utilizing its personal tone to hover over the exhibition's central theme: adornment. “I wonder if flirtation to love can be likened to ornamentation to the object it embellishes: the harmless pleasure of seduction without the weight of emotions, the happiness promise that remains a promise. A frivolity as necessary as a caress to the heart.”¹

It's an intriguing question. Some people might consider flirtation charming precisely because it embellishes the path to love. Yet, others might perceive it as empty or annoying, postponing the onset of more genuine feelings. When translated to the realm of art, Nicolle reinvigorates and makes the question boil: Does a wall feel affection for the wallpaper that covers it? Wasn't it already beautiful without it? Can a picture interrupting its captivating patterns be tolerated by the wallpaper? A seemingly frivolous or idle gaze can subtly subject objects and spaces to anxiety. Is this how it all should look? Is everything in the right place? Two possibilities emerge: the embellished surface may adore or despise its adornments.

A third element introduces a dimension between adoration and loathing, forming a triangle: the parasite. Perhaps a painting embeds itself into a wall like a flea into a fur-coated body, bringing with it a microscopic convalescence. Maybe removing any unnecessary adornment, as many classicist art movements have striven for centuries, would symbolize the fulfillment of any surface. But how can we avoid the parasite? We are many, we are close, and it's hot. Even a parasite can carry its own adornments, as shown by those who have dressed fleas traditionally since the 19th century.²

The perimeter drawn by the adore-loathe-parasite triad forms the ground on which Nicolle has installed a dance floor. Music is on the wallpaper, love phrases from different songs stretch and contract the view in various directions on the carpet, creating varied depth effects. A room full of dancing bodies never clearly reveals its size. As one pair of shoes strides forward seeking attention, another is worn by someone rubbing their back against the wall. Dancing alongside us are lively fleas dressed in their trendiest clothes. “Y yo me le pego y él se me pega,” [I get close to him, he gets close to me] sings Bellakath.

In this exhibition, each work's distinctiveness creates cunning visual and semantic tricks extolling their evocative qualities and twisting conventional readings. A pearl necklace, synonymous with sophistication, is infested by the most ordinary Hawaiian flower necklace, like those given at carnival parties. The flowers are made of transparent silicone that easily stimulates touch and even taste. All material decisions applied to the works require expanding the sensitivity of its viewers. The flyer announcing this dance not only provides party information but also dazzles you with its bling bling.

If the work stays intact because of its many textures and turns, it's because Nicolle has coated it with a unique patina: a blue—lighter than sky blue, yet not pastel—that references the color fading in prints exposed to the sun. Flyers glued on lampposts, magazines displayed in a beauty salon window for decades. This blue doesn't color objects with any novelty, but rather, it exposes their impermanence, even antiquity. Perhaps rethinking our relation to artworks and their displays isn't about something durable and dazzling. Updating the conversation about ornamentation may no longer ignore the adversities of the contemporary climate.

It's profoundly valuable to create conditions to address decoration as a complex matter, unfolding its implications. Rather than hastily forming a diagnosis on art's effectiveness concerning its object construction or discursive coherence, the love-dislike-parasite triangle insists on engaging with art entirely—with voracious eyes that devour its surface, skin weathered under the sun, feet moving at different rhythms, with others dancing near us, a lyrical and emotional history that's always present. No ironical or patronizing strategies are apparent—rather, wariness and remarkable plastic and conceptual generosity stand out.

Honestly, I believe this exhibition emits something akin to a contemporary sign. It's popular without going viral; a sign exhausted and faded from relentlessly striving to be modern. The artist's work's efficacy lies in practicing aesthetic problems through engagement, favoring visuals familiar and pleasurable to us. Nicolle invites us to a ballroom where emancipation is unguaranteed. Still, dancing together perhaps makes us feel beautiful and generates unprecedented movements—something challenging to achieve. We are bound by wear and the bites of the same tiny blood-sucking microfauna.

The exhibition can be visited until April 20.

— Bruno Enciso

Translated to English by Luis Sokol

¹ https://guadalajara90210.com/project/espacio-cdmx/marzo-2024-samuel-nicolle/

² https://esbarrio.com/trending/vestir-pulgas-tradicion-mexico/