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In armament, a cluster bomb is an aerial bomb of simple design that explodes before reaching its target, scattering thousands of shrapnel that spread in random or precise directions, depending on the wanted effect. In Art, the sharp manipulator of this bomb is ROD.
Fragmentation is indeed a manipulation, in the sense of adjusting as much as of distorting, imagined by ROD to show in a different way an image or information that if kept raw would have the effect of a bomb. This conception enables him to free himself from any ambiguity between what is suitable to be shown and what can be visible. ROD ignores these considerations. He has chosen Art in order to express himself freely, sincerely, with no compromise and he has made the bending of rules his trademark.
The process of Fragmentation gives ROD many possibilities to create, taking into consideration Art, Architecture and Design, without limit. It is a photographical, graphic, conceptual and intellectual work based on a very simple process. ROD captures, fragments then mixes and gathers several powerful images to recompose a pixilated, structured and excessive whole that invades and takes over the space as well as the mesmerized spectator.
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Whereas the idea is simple and the depiction minimalist, though impressive, the creation of these pieces requires from ROD the qualities of a pyrotechnist. He meticulously cuts plates of plexi imprinted with images into thousands of small cubes that he spreads according to a random or methodical logic belonging to subterfuge. He then fixes these cubes one by one to each another using rods or tubes and installs them on the main structure, most often a rigorous frame that by either holding back the spatter or proving to be the propulsion zone reinforces the explosive visual impact.
The final composition, voluminous and aerial, invading, pierced by light, is a reference to the cellular structure; which makes sense since with Fragmentation, ROD dissects and reconstitutes to better denounce them the visions of society or humanity (pain, injustice, famine…) that cause him a physical, gut reaction.
This Collection commits the artist and the man at once. Hence the proceeds from the sale of certain pieces of the series are to be donated to charities that he cares about. The violence that comes with some images confirms the artist’s choice to amplify the splinters of their wave rather than to convey only the shock, in order to better reach its target. As if he echoed the muffled cry of a time bomb…
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