Fernando Bryce

Fernando Bryce engages in a distinctive form of critical reflection that uses drawing as a tool to address the tragic banality of historical images, documents, and texts. He is interested in examining how visual and written media create and convey a perception of a country, a people, or an historical event. Armed with pen and ink, and practicing a kind of neutral drawing reminiscent of comic strips of the mid-20th century, Bryce reproduces by hand entire archives of written materials from government documents to tourist brochures. Through this laborious process of copying, he emphasizes the ways in which facts are constructed, history is reported, and culture is described. By physically reproducing these documents, he removes each piece of paper from the realm of fact and re-situates it into that of art. In essence, he uses aesthetics strategically to question the credibility of the printed page. Bryce's new series of drawings investigates the history of Pan-American relations during the Cold War. He does not intend to validate any specific account of the past nor to clarify any particular event disputed by different historians, but rather to unlock the arbitrary nature and the power of his sources.

Selected Bibliography:

Bryce, Fernando. "Atlas Perú: un essayo artístíco de reconstrucción critica de la Historia de Perú." In Humbolt, no. 139 (2003), published by Goethe Institut, Munich.

Fernando Bryce. Santa Monica, Calif.: Smart Art Press, 2001.

Fernando Bryce. Exhibition catalogue. Berlin: Verlag Thumm & Kolbe, 2003.

Políticas de la Diferencia, Arte Iberoamericano fin de Siglo. Exhibition catalogue. Buenos Aires: Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, 2001.

Puntos Cardinales: 4 Artistas Visuales Peruanos. Exhibition catalogue. Lima: Sala Luis Miró Quesada Garland de la Municipalidad de Miraflores, 2002.

Links:

Galerie Barbara Thumm (click on Fernando Bryce)