Tony Orrico Friday Performance Piece & Gallery Opening Reflection

 

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Last Friday night, I had the honor of filming visiting artist Tony Orrico’s performance piece at the Wriston Art Center as well as the subsequent gallery opening of his other artworks and the guests coming in to appreciate them. A large part of Orrico’s technique implements his dance education and involves him lying on a large flat sheet of paper on his stomach where he would then spin himself around in a circular fashion with a graphite pencil in each hand drawing out the resulting patterns. This is just one of his techniques, as it appears he has dabbled in other mediums such as collage, prints, and sculpture, all of which have been applied impressively. The symmetry of all of Orrico’s pieces is impeccable and illustrates a certain fluidity I do not as vividly recall from previous gallery showings.  That being said, it is this symmetry that, while certainly appealing to look at, creates an almost tacked-on or commercial feel from Orrico’s artwork. The pieces are so pattern-oriented, so symmetrical, so perfectly portioned, that it almost feels lifeless. Imperfections, whether they are minor or not, at least lend the image of a work crafted by a human and not by someone with machine-like proficiency who does not particularly go beyond the simple, abstract forms. To further my criticism of Orrico's repetitive artwork, I cite author Jean Baudrillard, who writes in his extensive treatise Simulations in concern of "industrial simulacrum," simulacrum being another word for a representation or imitation, that "The immersive energies that are at work in technique...should not hide the fact that it is...only a matter of attaining to that indefinite reproductibility" (Baudrillard 98). How Orrico primarily goes about creating his artwork is without question impressive to behold, but he just seems to do the same repetitive motions that predictably result in a massive piece that essentially contains a large number of looped, patterned circles. I may not be fond of the manufactured feel of the pieces, but I at least greatly admire the uniqueness and ambition of Tony Orrico’s physicality-intensive technique and the amount of sweat and time put into that technique.

Tony Orrico's Performance Piece at Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros in Mexico City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naARKHq-P4M

   

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