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The work of Margaret Whyte is associated with many of the modern and contemporary practices that respond to a certain aesthetic regime, such as painting, soft sculpture, and installations. However, Whyte produces works, from a poetic-speculative visuality, that link elements that belong to different systems. Both are contaminated in their visuality as well as in their meaning.
The ontology of her own objects is generated from a series of unexpected connections where the waste of contemporary society is juxtaposed. The remains - which define us as an active part of ultra-capitalist systems - acquire a new value in her work, to form part of a speculative poetic regime where the human coexists with everything else, which is not. Her works are structured based on the assembly of various entities, textiles (used clothing, remains of coats or upholstery), broken glass, copper fabrics, electronic circuits, or motorcycle helmets. These materials, human and non-human, coexist in a new abject being-object. These actants, according to Latour, are present in all periods of her visual practice, where we find incongruous and strange situations. Margaret Whyte anticipates once again questions that are currently being developed from the field of political philosophy and art theory.
In this last period her pieces mutate, as they can be transformed into a contingent body that is always built differently. The cracks that occur in perception are generated from the contamination of the senses of these new objects. Each piece, has in turn, a certain origin, a constellation of meanings and trajectories, of chemical and physical characteristics, which accumulate and dialogue with each other and with their environment, whether we are present in that environment or not.
It can be an interesting exercise to think about the practices of pioneering artists, such as Margaret Whyte, Nelbia Romero, Cristina Casabo, Leonilda Gonzales and many many others, from the territories of philosophy and current critical thought. Those atemporal readings, from a contemporary conceptualization, would allow us to access an archive of contextual processes. If we approach these archives with an additive, inclusive, or why not, anthropophagic vocation, as Oswald de Andrade proposed, perhaps we can understand that only she, only anthropophagy unites us and all these antecedents are perceived as essential and unavoidable to place ourselves where today we are, however little.
Margaret Whyte has been a member of the Fundación de Arte Contemporáneo / FAC since its inception. She participated in several biennials and exhibitions in Uruguay and abroad. She has received several awards and distinctions, including the Figari Prize.
La obra de Margaret Whyte esta asociada a muchas de las practicas modernas y contemporáneas que responden a un determinado régimen estético, como la pintura, la escultura blanda y las instalaciones. Sin embargo, Whyte produce desde una visualidad poético - especulativa, obras que vinculan elementos que pertenecen a distintos sistemas. Unos y otros se contaminan tanto en su visualidad como en su sentido.
La ontología de los propios objetos de esta artista se genera a partir de una serie de conexiones inesperadas donde se juxtaponen los desechos de la sociedad contemporánea. Los restos -que nos definen como parte activa de los sistemas ultra capitalistas- adquieren en su obra un nuevo valor, para formar parte de un régimen poético especulativo donde lo humano convive con todo lo otro, que no lo es. Sus trabajos se estructuran en base al ensamblaje de entes diversos, textiles (ropa usada, restos de abrigos o tapizados), vidrios rotos, tejidos de cobre, circuitos electrónicos o cascos de motocicletas. Estos materiales, humanos y no humanos, conviven en un nuevo ser-objeto abyecto. Estos actantes, al decir de Latour, están presentes en todos los periodos de su practica visual, donde encontramos situaciones incongruentes y de extrañeza. Margaret Whyte se adelanta una vez mas a cuestionamientos que desde el ámbito de la filosofía política y del pensamiento del arte se están desarrollando actualmente.
En este ultimo periodo sus piezas mutan, pueden transformarse internamente en un cuerpo contingente que se construye siempre diferente. Las fisuras que se producen en la percepción, se generan a partir de la contaminación de sentidos de esos nuevos objetos. Cada pieza que lo conforma, tiene a su vez, una determinada procedencia, una constelación de significados y trayectorias, de características químicas y físicas, que se acumulan y dialogan entre si y con su entorno, estemos presentes, o no, en ese entorno.
Puede ser un ejercicio interesante pensar las practicas de artistas pioneras, como Margaret Whyte, Nelbia Romero, Cristina Casabo, Leonilda Gonzales y muchas muchas otras, desde los territorios de la filosofia y el pensamiento critico actual. Esas lecturas acronicas, desde una conceptualizacion contemporanea, nos permitirian acceder a un archivo de procesos contextuales. Si abordamos esos archivos con una vocacion aditiva, inclusiva, o porque no, antropofagica, como proponia Oswald de Andrade, tal vez podamos entender, que solo ella, solo la antropofagia nos une y todos estos antecedentes se perciben imprescindibles e insoslayables para situarnos donde hoy estamos, por poco que sea.
Margaret Whyte integra desde sus inicios la Fundación de Arte Contemporáneo/FAC. Participo de varias bienales y exposiciones en Uruguay y en el exterior. Ha recibido varios premios y distinciones, entre ellos, el Premio Figari.
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