An endlessly reflective net of jewels
Victoria Lobregat's exhibition entitled An Endlessly Reflective Net of Jewels was a curious array of painted symbols and collaged mementos (personal symbols) on canvas board. As if plucked at random from the infinite language of the sign and then combined idiosyncratically, Lobregat placed traditional Buddhist designs, Christian icons, Hindu gods, surf-brand logos, cartoon-like skulls, Guatemalan motifs, personal memorabilia and more, together with panels of text, in formal grided arrangements. A simple painting style enacted in bright acrylic tempered the complicated tone that was on offer.
An Endlessly Reflective Net of Jewels appeared as an incongruous mix of themes including spirituality, consumerism, minority culture, sub-culture, life and death. By covering such a diverse range of issues, Lobregat risked tackling too many concerns with the one exhibition and appearing overly ambiguous. Her use of text however, provided an insight into the motivation behind this strategy of mass symbolism. Quotes such as "A WORLD FULL OF SIGNS WITHOUT FAULT" and "ECSTATIC BLISS INFINITE LOVE", taken from the writings of Jacques Derrida and the Buddhist Tao respectively, were included in the paintings. The phrases lent themselves to the underlying themes of general acceptance and a perceived connection between theoretical reasoning and religious/philosophical interpretations. The ultimate destination of both Derrida's notion of differance and the Buddhist state of Nirvana is after all, the realm of the unconscious-the place in which the real may finally be captured.
The exhibition's underlying themes may have seemed unrealistically utopian to some but they were secondary to the representation of Lobregat's self-identity and a semiotic play on the nature of subjective interpretation. The painted symbols, arranged into grids of two panels by two, formed larger single paintings that were seen