They may show you who you really are
The fact that an artist like the Spanish photographer MIEDHO would have been burnt at the steak in the glorious times of the Spanish Inquisition is enough to make me curious about his works. The fact that in 2010 an artist like MIEDHO still faces a negative reaction from the public because of his “dark”, “gothic” works is troubling. Haven’t we been able yet to see through the stereotypes? Haven’t we learned that art should be loved for art’s sake and that the purpose of art is art itself?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, indeed. For I see true Beauty in the photographies of this young Spanish artist who breaks all rules but the artistic ones. MIEDHO’s photographies show an ellaborate research work, a solid pictorial knolwedge as well as a bewildering sense of creating beauty by mixing colours and textures.
MIEDHO is a revealer, not a manipulator. He doesn’t state his creed abruptly and bluntly, he doesn’t tell us what we should see in his pictures. He invites us to follow him on the intricate and profound path of depthness, soul-search and loneliness. Do you dare follow him? If so, you are in for a surprise. Those who tried to venture on the path that MIEDHO proposes found at the end of the journey, after having been put to all shorts of tests to prove their faithfulness to their own selves, their true nature, a huge, misty mirror, with gold and silver embroidered edges. With bewildered eyes they managed to look into the mirror. The image kept on changing with each breath of wind, blast of air, glow of fire or handful of earth. Beautiful women enchant the visitors with their long hair and aetherical eyes. Haunting images of dark demons appear from time to time in the misty reflection. The courageous visitors are afraid to look deeper. They are overcome with fear. Fear to see the image hiding behind the beautiful, poetic faces, an image stronger even than the demonical faces. Many of the visitors run away.
Those who stayed and searched in the reflection of MIEDHO’s mirror found themselves. MIEDHO’s gift to his courageous visitors: freedom from themselves – freedom from fears, freedom from infectious mediocrity and vulgar stereotypes. MIEDHO shocks and bewilders you, shows you beauty and ugliness, courage and fear, pleasure and disgust, love and hate, all the primary emotions that a man always encounters in life. The ones he always wants to avoid because they are the ones that define him as a human being. The ones that he always makes up excuses for. MIEDHO offers the shivering reality of seeing yourself for the first time and the harsh epiphany of grasping in one breath the nakedness of the soul, truthfulness of the heart and boldness of the mind. That is, nothing that your friends may like.
Do you dare enter MIEDHO’s artistic realm? You have been warned. For better or for worse, you will return a changed man.
http://artofmiedho.blogspot.com/