Animal fables are not a recent occurrence for mankind. They can be culturally traced back to the times of ancient Mesopotamia. The Greeks used fables for educational purposes, just as Esopo, one of the world’s most read and renown writers, did.

Fables are short millennial stories whose leading characters are animals, objects and living beings that, in a metaphorical way, convey an inherent message or teaching that have had the ability to inspire generations of artists from immemorial times. Some of the most known fables include “La liebre y la Tortuga”, “La gallina de los huevos de oro”, “El león y el ratón” and “La cigarra y la hormiga.

Ariel Vargassal’s Fables of Emotional and Physical Displacement solo exhibition ushers viewers into a packed-universe of animals and species, which will kindly invite the public to question displacement, global animal extinction and climate change. The exhibit makes viewers reconsider our environment and the changes needed to heal our dying planet.

For Vargassal, a native of Mexico –– a land of animals, sacred tales, magic and myths –– this journey through multiple fables is an allegory that finds no place nor meaning in the environmental, political, financial or social disaster. Rather, it finds meaning in a different imagination, one where civilization’s survival and life depends on its ability to awaken to its own conscience. In some images, we become witnesses to the battle for rebuilding our environment and society, whereas other images are vibrant reflections on the psychological and sociological changes desired by the artist.

Like Toledo, Vargassal creates a seductive character that connects to and establishes a dialog with animals as if he were a wizard, whose artwork and face fade away with every snapshot captured by a camera’s lens (as if his soul could be stolen by a flashlight). But it all just vanishes within the canvas.

Every art piece showcased at the exhibit portrays characters abiding by a pact of silence rooted in an ancient connection and down-to-earth language that speak to the existing unity between nature, animals and mankind. Vargassal tries to re-conceptualize each art piece’s original format by creating individual fables that enable him to transform this exhibition into a useful tool for viewers to consider our role in the creation of a system better serving the future of our planet.

To this end, and putting visual techniques into place, the artist will share stories via paintings and art installations that create open narratives as if each were an open book page questioning our conceptions of the environment and helping us to re-imagine what our planet could become –– one where relations between human beings, mother Earth, nature and animals co-exist in a healthy way. The tales and stories told in this exhibition rooted in this narrative will enable us to imagine new shapes and ways of inhabiting the world. This is the case of Bee-Careful with our planet, an installation put together by Vargassal and another artist using two thousand ceramic bees, whose goal is to raise awareness of bees and other pollinators that serve as our world’s food supply –– one increasingly threatened by human activity (particularly industrial agriculture and climate change).

Marisa Caichiolo. Art Curator. Santa Monica, CA.

art installation

sumersive Art experience made of hand crafted, ceramic bees, molded and painted by the artist. Music composed by Daniel Broadhurst and Ariel Vargassal.