Gabriel Orozco
Charco Portátil Congelado (Frozen Portable Puddle)
1994
Gabriel Orozco, Charco portatil congelado (Frozen Portable Puddle), 1994.
Charco Portátil Congelado (Frozen Portable Puddle) is a photographic record of an installation of the same name that Gabriel Orozco made at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam for the group exhibition WATT (1994). The artist arrived a week before the opening with no artwork to install and created three spontaneous works from locally sourced materials. This one was made of white plastic record sleeves that Orozco arranged on the damp roof of the gallery. He left it out overnight, and by morning there was a layer of ice coating it—a serendipitous frozen portable puddle. The work highlights Orozco’s flexible practice and trust in chance encounters.
Gabriel Orozco is known for his nomadic approach to art-making, working without a fixed studio and drawing inspiration from the various contexts he encounters during his travels. Orozco is the son of muralist Mario Orozco Rivera, and his work often reflects a questioning of artistic identity within the Mexican cultural landscape. Orozco's practice is characterized by his use of ‘poor’ materials and objects found in everyday environments, whether natural or urban. Through division, juxtaposition, or collage, he creates surprising, often humorous, and sometimes lyrical scenarios that challenge conventional perceptions. His sculptural practice is intricately connected with his drawings, photographs, and films, all of which explore relationships of space and disrupt our understanding of objects. Orozco's work flows seamlessly across different mediums, making him one of the most innovative and influential artists in contemporary art, celebrated for his ability to find poetry in the mundane.