Omar Reyna 2023 Longlist

Artist Bio

Omar Reyna Flores is a Mexican-Canadian artist that seeks the materialization of the work of art at a midpoint between research and the activity of making. He produces photographic base projects with a wide range of media. In his view, making while experimenting is a form of physical thinking. Born in Mexico City and now settled in Yukon, Omar studied visual communication and has studies in photography, sculpture, painting, and the philosophy of image. His work has been exhibited in Hungary, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Argentina, South Korea and Italy.

Artist Statement

I see my art practice as an act of contriving worlds beyond the visible, between the real and the imagined. I work in between photography and the physical manipulation of objects and materials. I aim to trigger events and actions 1 that connect, disturb and question what we perceive. My approach is much as cerebral as a physical engagement. Research and reflection are a big part of my process, but I also think, articulate, and conceptualize through the activity of making. I believe that holding the photographic camera and moving with it can be, besides a physical act of beautiful complexity, a philosophical, poetic and violent gesture. My art practice is photography-based, acting as wrapping art form for other mediums—in unison towards a unified and highly manipulated output. Many of my art-making processes rely on an unfocused mind where I make progress eluding direct thinking.

Work Statement

 The disorderly flow of smoke from a burning cigar, the blood flow in arteries, the atmosphere and ocean currents are examples of turbulent flows. A state of erratic and constant 2 change lies at the core of these examples. This unpredictable energy is the leitmotif of this project. As a physical entity, turbulence lacks a complete mathematical description. We can call it an energetic and rotational eddy motion, a dispersion of material, a transfer of momentum, a non-existence of forms that seem to appear out of nowhere or use all descriptions at once. Turbulent flow is a scientific term for the unpredictable motion of a fluid. But it also means a heavy and disorderly burden to endure, as in the phrase ‘turbulent times’. When turbulence appears in our every day, life becomes an ocean upon which we can easily flounder.

An Ocean Roaming through the Forest is an in-progress multidisciplinary project that points outwards into the world and inwards into our psyche. Turbulence is a phenomenon that might be looking at the universe as a force of destruction, transformation and change, but it is also a way of looking into an inner state of being.

What is the relationship between turbulence and the everyday? Is turbulence a power able to completely transform or destroy everything that it touches? Why difficult emotions can be described better in terms of fluid motion? Are some things better understood when broken?