Fakewhale in Dialogue with Adam Cruces
Adam Cruces combines painting, sculpture, video, and installations in his multi-dimensional practice to explore themes such as the interaction between nature and domestication, and the balance between obligation and leisure. Originally from Houston and now based in Zurich, Cruces provides us with an in-depth view of his artistic journey and future projects in our interview today.
Fakewhale: Adam, during your childhood in Houston, your mother recognized your early artistic talent and enrolled you in private art lessons. How did these early years influence your development as an artist and your decision to pursue a career in art?
Adam Cruces: The early years influenced me in a couple of ways. On one hand, I became familiar with using color, line, form, space, and so forth in a traditional way to create conventional still lifes and landscapes from observation with pastels. On the other hand, I was introduced to artists I still deeply admire today – Monet, van Gogh, Renoir, and Cézanne. In my childhood, I never regarded art as a potential career path. It was just something I loved doing outside of school, like playing sports (which would have been a more appealing prospect at the time). Only when it came time to declare a major in college did I consider a creative field as a viable option.
Fakewhale: Your education includes a BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and an MFA in Kunst & Medien. How have these educational paths shaped your artistic approach and current practice?
Adam Cruces: My BFA program encouraged experimentation, instilled a strong work ethic, and fostered a curiosity about the art world. My MFA program was about trying to find my voice, as well as what I want to say and how to say it – I’m still not sure I’m succeeding- a Sisyphean task. A way I tried to accomplish that was by essentially taking a pause from my own work for a year to run a project space out of my MFA studio. That endeavor focused on realizing projects of artists from abroad who hadn’t exhibited in Zurich before. It was called ‘Headquarters’ (http://theheadquarters.org), and that experience had a substantial impact on how I made work afterward. I became much more particular about the intention, execution, and presentation of my practice. It motivated me to strive for a balance between consistent quality and a certain unpredictability.
Fakewhale: You have lived in Zurich for several years, and this city has significantly influenced your work. Can you explain how Zurich’s cultural environment and logistical limitations have impacted your artistic production?
Adam Cruces: Zurich, and Switzerland in general, is a great place for a creative person. Given its small size, Switzerland has a disproportionate amount of activity in the various cultural fields. Plus if there’s some special happening in Paris, Milan, or Berlin, it’s quite easy to get there. With so many art events going on and cultural support at the city, cantonal, and national levels it’s hard to complain. I’ve been able to realize projects in ways that would have been much more challenging if I still lived in the States. Although, there are aspects of being in Zurich which can become pricey speed bumps, like allocating supplies locally or having components Swiss-produced. Not to mention the ridiculous costs of getting items in and out of Switzerland. It’s a tradeoff, one which I’ve been happy to make up to this point and for the foreseeable future.
Fakewhale:Your work often addresses the theme of the relationship between nature and domestication. Can you discuss how this theme manifests in your recent works and what messages you hope to convey through them?
Adam Cruces: Nature and (its) domestication are fascinating. The trial and error of agricultural development, while also training wild animals, over millennia is astounding and puzzling. In regard to my output, these are a couple areas of interest that inspire the subjects I choose and the decision-making behind its creation. But I’m never really thinking of specific messages to convey through the work. I want to evoke a mysterious intrigue, a magnetic encounter for the audience. In my recent presentation at Liste in Basel, the notion of domesticity comes through with large scale reflective surfaces of the iron soleplates serving as a hall of mirrors in the booth. Nature is present in the landscapes of the pastels with Shar Peis. This special breed highlights domestication of nature through artificial selection, distinctly chosen by humans for their wrinkly appearance, which is sadly problematic to the dogs’ health. Another nod to the taming of nature for human consumption/ pleasure comes in the form of the oversized cigarettes. A folded fortune from a fortune cookie is also begging to be smoothed out by the irons, like the creases of the canines. I’ll point out that text played a big role, too. The Shar Peis’ fur have words in them which one might see on a vanity license plate or phone case. Awkwardly worded statements of encouragement of the fortunes take on more importance with greater proportion, even though they’re normally a throwaway amusement.
Fakewhale: Your installations often combine elements of painting, sculpture, and video. Can you describe your process of integrating these different media and how you manage to create harmony between them?
Adam Cruces: Honestly, the process begins when an opportunity comes along to present new work. I’m sensitive to the circumstances of the occasion. Is it a solo or group presentation? What’s the context (gallery, fair, institution, project space)? What are the dimensions of the space? What’s the duration of the show? What’s the budget? How long do I have to produce/ install? These factors provide a starting point for me conjure up appropriate topics, materials, and techniques recurring throughout my practice, while mixing those with new ideas waiting to be materialized. Perhaps there are existing things I’ve not shown and I can include them with something I haven’t made. To manage all of these moving parts, I consider what type of exhibition I would want to visit. In every case, my goal is for the viewer to be engaged. Whether it’s by motif, production value, spatial sensation, or whatever. Worst case scenario: the viewer feels bored.
Fakewhale: In your work, you often seek the most engaging way to convey an idea or feeling through your art. Can you share an example of a piece where you feel you achieved this goal and explain the process behind its creation?
Adam Cruces: Even though part of me believes every artwork should be able to stand on its own, I think it makes more sense to answer the question in relation to an individual display, as opposed to a single work. I’ve been satisfied with my recent solo presentations, but one that stands out for me was ‘Eavesdropping’ at Blue Velvet in 2022. There was limited lead time when I was approached for the show. So I kind of needed to have an immediate point of departure in mind. Luckily, the circumstances allowed me to use an idea had been contemplating for years. A room full of rainsticks on rotating motors inundating one with sound. With that being such a main feature of the installation, the other elements came along in a streamlined fashion. My impression is that I found a sweet spot for the concept, space, lighting, quantity and placement of paintings and sculptures. The audial presence united the entire exhibition, and dealing with interiority and exteriority in a basement seemed like a good fit. It was simultaneously intimate and alienating.
Fakewhale: How do you balance the importance of details with the need to maintain a coherent overall vision in your work?
Adam Cruces: When putting together an installation, there’s a finite amount of time, energy, and money available for execution. Maybe there’s one work in a show that requires a lot of attention. To get it perfect is impossible. So I try to get it to where it convincingly serves its function in relation to the rest of the presentation. While I can be demanding of myself, I aim to remain practical and realistic. If I’m being too idealistic, I’ll end up chasing my tail, getting lost in details. Craft and production quality is always a concern, but it’s not the focal point of my practice. In my mind, it’s a balancing act. Although, when I’m contributing a single work to a group context, I try to get it as perfect as I possibly can, along with clearly detailed installation instructions. Then I’m anxiously crossing my fingers for the organizers to manage a proper and favorable display.
Fakewhale: Your exhibition “Chimera” at the Public Gallery in London explored themes of transformation and fusion. Can you tell us more about this exhibition and the specific works displayed?
Adam Cruces: My intent was to generate an absurd, yet lucid experience that moved the viewer through the space while encouraging them to construct their own connections between the individual components of the show. Throughout the exhibition there was a range of pairings or diptychs, playing with duality. Jeans (front and back), strawberries (twins), ghillie suits (forest and plains), figures beneath boxes (active and static), camouflages (landscape and cityscape), fence/ curtains (external and internal). And even more importantly, the works pushed and pulled between notions of the natural and the manmade, alongside the foreign and the familiar. Like birds in airports.
Fakewhale: You have worked on projects in various countries, including Italy, Switzerland, and the United States. How have different cultures and geographical environments influenced your work and artistic perspective?
Adam Cruces: I have been fortunate to be involved on professional and personal levels with so many people in places around the world. And each is unique. Every experience is added to the mental stockpile of inspiration that I can re-visit when developing new stuff. A color of a stone I saw in Mexico, an old flyer on a bulletin board in South Korea, and so on can all enter a piece, in some cases more overt than others. I frequently try to have the work respond in some form to where it’s being shown, the travels have undoubtedly aided me in that respect.
Fakewhale: You have been involved in projects such as “Desktop Views” and “Headquarters,” which combine physical and virtual spaces. We are curious about these themes; could you tell us about your vision for the future of these initiatives and how you think they will evolve?
Adam Cruces: ‘Desktop Views’ was pretty self-contained, and ‘Headquarters’ was a way of distancing myself from my own practice to gain perspective on moving forward (as mentioned before). In fact, there is currently an ongoing evolution to those projects where I take on the role of host or organizer. My partner, Louisa Gagliardi, and I have been running a project called ‘For Seasons’ (http://forseasons.ch) out of our apartment’s living room since the beginning of 2018. It’s a collection-based initiative where we invite a new artist to present a single piece on the wall of our living room for each season of the year. It is open by appointment, yet we have no opening or closing receptions. Family, friends, and colleagues are the core audience. They experience the work in an intimate way. The context is very personal and the contributions are part of my daily life for 3 months. It’s bittersweet because taking down a piece at the end of its season is sad, but it’s equally exciting to install the new one. ‘For Seasons’ keeps me on my toes to build new connections and re-establish old relationships, it supports my inquisitiveness in gaining insight to how others operate, too. At some point in the future, Louisa and I hope to show all of the contributions of the collection together somewhere.
Fakewhale: Your approach to design and aesthetics seems to be both functional and conceptual. How do you find the balance between these two dimensions in your work?
Adam Cruces: I’ve been interested in design for ages. I love the thought of creative output serving a utilitarian purpose, whether it’s a website, garment, book, or chair. I had actually planned to go into graphic design when I first started college, but sacrificing creative vision for a client’s whims was off-putting enough to push me toward visual art. There are moments in my practice where ‘design’ is a consideration. From time to time, I like when an artwork can flirt with functionality and/ or being decorative. I’ve taken a Marcel Breuer Wassily chair and replaced the straps with lawn chair webbing. I’ve also modified a sleek motorcycle helmet into a lamp by fixing a halo-shaped circline fluorescent bulb on top. These objects have functionality, in the case of the helmet it has been transgressed. Anyhow, that’s secondary to them being sculptures, in my opinion. While design is about searching for solutions, art is about generating questions. In my work I want to form provocative questions, so I’m constantly searching for creative solutions to do so effectively.
Fakewhale: You have stated that you appreciate both the apparent simplicity and the laborious complexity in artworks. How do you incorporate these contrasting qualities into your projects?
Adam Cruces: I’ve had ideas that seemed rather simple on the surface, but giving life to the project ended up being very cumbersome. It’s not unusual that things which appear straightforward to produce end up being a nightmare due to time consumption, logistics, etc. Conversely, I’ve had a complicated ambition result in an extremely simple outcome. Trying to get a work to have a concise effortlessness paired with captivating depth is continuously on my mind.
Fakewhale: Your art often plays with the familiar and the foreign, creating a dialogue between what we know and what is new. What are the challenges and opportunities of working with these concepts?
Adam Cruces: There’s a personal association to the terms of ‘familiar’ and ‘foreign’ within my practice. Throughout my years of being in Switzerland, I still feel American in Europe, while feeling increasingly European when I go back to America. My English suffers as I attempt to improve in French and German. These developments have certainly affected my work. There’s an expectation and then there’s subversion of the expectation when something ‘normal’ undergoes even the slightest of changes. I want to play with that. For example, the iron soleplates at Liste were, to an extent, abstracted due to alteration of scale, in addition to repetition of the household appliance. That brought about a totally different presence, while the source was still recognizable. Might be simple, but not necessarily easy to do in a persuasive manner.
Fakewhale: Recently, you completed a project for the Swiss Institute in Milan. Can you talk about this experience and the work you presented?
Adam Cruces: Yeah, that was a fun duo exhibition called ‘Nothing to See Here’ with Enrico Boccioletti. He made ‘tables’ consisting of framed images laid flat on top of trasnparent plastic containers. During the opening people could put their empty and unfinished drinks on his works. My sculptures incorporated overlooked everyday objects associated with get-togethers (napkins, pizza cutters, bottle openers, and chip clips). Each of these items was black and white, then vacuum-formed into black and white plastic. White utensils were embedded into black plastic, then black utensils were embedded into white plastic – basically a yin yang effect. Those vacuum-formed elements were components of columns, in which black and white zip ties held together stacks of metallic mesh garbage cans. As a whole, the show was like modern ruins. Enrico’s images became containers for the refuse of the event, while my Brancusi-esque, moire columns of trashcans (some fallen, some standing) with disposable objects of contemporary culture, were unusable.
Fakewhale: Looking to the future, what are your upcoming projects and what themes or technologies do you plan to explore in the coming years?
Adam Cruces: At the moment I’m focusing on my second solo exhibition with Blue Velvet, at its new space in Zurich, which will open at the end of the summer. The exhibition will continue with some of the thematic paths I’ve been pursuing lately, primarily manipulations of landscapes and tools used to maintain or control those environments. Aside from that, I look forward to forthcoming residencies in Austria and Italy. I hope to realize some brainstorms I’ve been having for some outdoor projects, both temporary and long term. I’d also like to get back into video. There are so many ideas, materials, and techniques I want to explore. I’m keeping my eyes open for the right possibilities to bring these things to life.
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Founded in 2021, Fakewhale advocates the digital art market's evolution. Viewing NFT technology as a container for art, and leveraging the expansive scope of digital culture, Fakewhale strives to shape a new ecosystem in which art and technology become the starting point, rather than the final destination.
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