Fine Arts

Artist to discuss project inspiration

During the discussion, Darlo Robleto will describe the contrast between life and death through the observation of voices and sounds. A tape containing Electronic Voice Phenomena is used to provide the contrast as it features a compilation of military drum marches, weapon fire and soldiers’ war cry as they fight in battlefields. | Courtesy of Inman Gallery

During the discussion, artist Darlo Robleto will describe the contrast between life and death through the observation of voices and sounds. A tape containing Electronic Voice Phenomena is used to provide the contrast. It features a compilation of military drum marches, weapon fire and soldiers’ war cry as they fight in battlefields.  |  Courtesy of the Inman Gallery 

A conceptual artist from San Antonio will discuss his work, “The Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed,” as part of the UH Libraries’ “The Art of Death and Dying” symposium at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Dudley Recital Hall.

Dario Robleto’s piece explores ideas and narratives that focus on the complex relationship between death, humans and memory.

Robleto argues that humans have an uncomfortable split between life and death, and his work is often cast in a negative light as a result.

“That’s one thing that bothers me. An argument I have to fight against is that my work is morbid or macabre,” Robleto said. “I am not interested in the morbid. It’s a very contemporary and privileged position to look at death as a removed process.”

In artistically addressing human experiences of death, loss and pain, Robleto said he strives to remain firmly rooted in fact.

“The role of history is very important to what I do as an artist. I would never say that I’m a historian in any academic sense, but I do take their profession very seriously,” Robleto said. “I feel like I’m using their standards when I approach a story.”

For Robleto, there is a fine line between the fields of science and art, he said.

“That is a sort of guiding philosophy for how I approach art — that you can have both,” Robleto said. “You can have the facts of science and the wonder of art all in the same experience.”

Art and science are two different languages used to analyze the universe in its infinite complexity, Robleto. He said that he has the tools that will allow him to contribute a new dimension to the discussion.

“The language of science is not quite equipped to talk about emotional impact,” Robleto said. “I’m a big believer in that this is where artists can step in, and I have the vocabulary to build the right metaphor for what the scientist is seeing.”

In the upcoming talk, the artist will address the Voyager space project and look closely at the Golden Records that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 carry.

These records, carrying a hodgepodge of sounds, information and greetings in various languages act as an emissary of human knowledge and ideals to the unknown depths of the universe.

The odds of tiny crafts being stumbled upon by alien intelligence are virtually nonexistant given the vastness of space, but to Robleto, this is a work of humanity and a foundational part of what it means to be human, he said.

“What becomes beautiful about it and what is very human is that you do something even when it is against the odds,” Robleto said.

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