In Plain Site: Isaac Cordal Creates Tiny Worlds Which Mirror Our own - Hi-Fructose Magazine

"One which his little businessmen make evident. These sculptures often appear without fanfare, alone or in small groups, faces etched by workaday stress. They heedlessly follow their corporate bosses into the deep dark depths of rain puddles, and text madly as rafts of refugees drift by in gutters; they cling to cell phones regardless of sinking canoes, and face rising seas with ineffectual floatation rings; they tow the line, even when it's merely a shadow or a crack; they march mindlessly into storm drains which look like yawning factory gates."

"While seemingly blind to the contradictions, Cordal's little businessmen are not always villains. In fact, it is often clear from the lines on their face, the indicative hunch of the shoulders, the desperate hollows in their cheeks that many of them do their "bread jobs" under duress-equal parts compulsion, coercion, and fear. It is not uncommon to find these careworn men considering a fatal leap off a utility line or ruminating over a small grass-covered grave within a natural fissure in the asphalt."

""Progress should be oriented toward creating just societies," continues Cordal. "We can discover that there is water on Mars but we cannot solve the water supply problems on Earth. We have overproduction of food but there are millions of hungry people in the world. We can manufacture a last generation's weapons and we still wonder why there are wars.""

Small sculpted figures portray careworn businessmen continuing routine behaviors amid environmental and social collapse. The figures obediently follow corporate cues, remain absorbed by devices, and cling to fragile remedies as floods and refugees pass. Many figures appear driven by compulsion, coercion, and fear, with visible exhaustion and despair that sometimes verge on suicidal contemplation. Exhibits stage tableaux that fuse consumerist bait and bureaucratic containment, emphasizing indoctrination and mechanical routine. The work contrasts technological and production achievements with unresolved basic human needs, critiquing progress that privileges consumption and weapons over justice and survival.

Read at Hi-Fructose Magazine - The New Contemporary Art Magazine