Gabriel Orozco
Perro en Tlalpan (Dog in Tlalpan)
1992
Perro en Tlalpan (Dog in Tlalpan)
Gabriel Orozco often documents found situations in the natural or urban landscape. He travels armed with his camera and insightfully captures scenes of the everyday that other people might ignore. Perro en Tlalpan (Dog in Tlalpan, 1992) is a photograph of a dog regally perched under an industrial shelter in the borough of Tlalpan in Mexico City. The shelter’s concrete form seems to reference monuments such as the Mesoamerican pyramids in Teotihuacan, not far from the city, thereby likening the dog in a humorous way to some kind of posed sacred creature.
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.