Harold Coego (b. 1973)
Biography
I consider myself to be a visual artist, using several types of mediums to express and channel my art. I was born in Havana, Cuba, and worked as Archeologist Assistant at the Historian of Havana City office under the direction of Eusebio Leal. My work at this institution consisted of mapping archeological sites, documenting and reproducing artworks of a wide variety of styles and designs found in many of the artifacts.
Parallel with my work at the Historian Office I participated in many pre-Columbian archeological excavations that were located outside of the city of Havana. This type of first-hand exposure to a variety of art forms and styles assisted me later on in my work as a Light Designer and scenography co-designer at the Obstacle Theater with Victor Varela, an internationally recognized Cuban theatre director. While working with Varela I was introduced to a broad range of traditional cultures based on their anthropological and theatrical history. All these tools assisted me later in my work with the International School of Cinema and Television in Havana (1999-2002) when I decided to dedicate most of my time to the writing and production of my own short films. After moving to Vancouver in 2002, I have focused the direction of my work primarily within my personal production of art through a series of drawings, collages and paintings that I have exhibited in Canada, United States, Cuba and Italy.
Artist Statement
I consider myself to be an outsider observer of the modern panorama. Reflecting in my fractured mirror every corner of its sharp reality. Like a flesh and bones computer, absorbing and projecting with pumped blood and little electric impulses, images and scenarios. I believe there is an ancient internal call for an organic representation of our surroundings as a way to understand it. I use this as a tool to analyze a much larger picture of our everyday events. This social comprehension shapes my artwork---images are representations of `reality` through an abstract cinematographic kaleidoscope. They are visible like music to the eye telling us a story---a twisted photocopy of ourselves, or perhaps more like a dream where something is always out of place.
Featured Artworks
him, her and the funky death
Head of the Storm
Caffeine (cup-faced)
Raised through glass
Revolution Square