Gardens of Earthly Delights

“Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible.” – Javier Pascual Salcedo

Shame on us, the children of the future, for remaining in the dark on cannabis, a substance ingrained in human history since antiquity. Our comprehension, obstructed by our delight in distorting reality, political agendas and bureaucratic absurdities, remains tragically inadequate in discerning marijuana’s benefits or poisons. For over a century, “reefer madness” narratives have imprisoned culture and thwarted intellect, twisting our view on a subject that should be crystal clear, given our miraculous technologies. Shame on us!

Thanks to the courage of pioneering scholars and researchers, we have managed to harvest precious limited data on the effects of high-potency cannabis on the population. Yet, compared to the encyclopedias we have on other, often younger substances, what is known is laughable and mostly anecdotal. Until science is free to investigate cannabis without fear of academic, cultural or legal repercussions, attempting to create sober policy or regulations on this mysterious substance is as absurd as wondering if, and how, space bears can become intoxicated by marijuana.

Biography:

From robots that hold protests, extruders that birth populations and machines that are designed for the dead to operate, Fernando Orellana has collaborated with automation for over twenty years to create transmedia artwork. As a machine designer, a technologist and a user, Orellana has blurred the line between himself and the machine in the creative process. The imagery and narrative that Orellana explores spans a spectrum that includes giving agency to automata, embraces the generatively made, celebrates the wonder of absurdity and is most often driven by the universes of his subconscious mind.

He has exhibited at a variety of regional, national and international venues, most recently at the Toledo Museum of Art, the Speed Art Museum, the Spring Break Art Show and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He received a Master of Fine Art from The Ohio State University, a Bachelor of Fine Art at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently an Associate Professor of Digital Art in the Visual Arts Department at Union College. He was born in El Salvador, San Salvador.