Valenzuela’s first solo show is titled “War Zone” and is concerned with theme of inner strife and outward conflicts. It is a collection of works on paper and a modular installation of terra-cotta masks.  

The majority of his paper works are pen and ink figure drawings interspersed with localized washes of ink or colored pigment; the ground appear fluid, blotted or stippled with paint while the paper was still damp. “Dry” medium is applied on top of the “fluid” paper, creating a foreground that is the locus of action and symbol.  

The works depict scenes of conflict; battles between plastic toy soldiers, action figures and vehicles of war (war planes, choppers, assault vehicles) in intense combat. In some instances human figures appear, as casualties, victims and even the originators of these dream-battles. The logic of the battle scenes mimics the free-flowing non-consequentiality of a child’s solitary play. Warriors wielding swords from ancient times are pitted against WWII soldiers with automatic rifles and grenades. Even bizarre are the three-way battles between robots, warriors and soldiers. The adult mind can only see inconsistencies and lopsidedness in these battles but to a child it is the action, the heroic moves and the intensity of the battle itself which excites the imagination. The resolution of conflict is not the purpose of the play.  

Valenzuela explains that these scenes are expressions of imagined internal battles of the ego. His choice of symbols is often dictated but a need for immediate communication; by appropriating images from the world of ordinary, everyday objects he intends to make his visual elements “easy on the eye”, for recall. It is the composition that carries the overall weight of his message.  

The ego, being a public mask of an individual is a construct of the mind. Psychologist Carl Jung says it is the “face with put up in public” as a defensive response to protect our core personality. It is our conformist aspect and it functions in accordance to the norms of society. The construction of the ego meant we have to set aside unsocial behavior, secret desires and habits, deep hatred and anger, but also much of our natural spontaneity. This “setting aside” creates the shadow part of our psyche. The shadow balances the ego and often our consciousness is caught in between the demands of both. Inside our minds is a battlefield between the conformity and spontaneity, between our civilized and savage desires. Jung also says the battles “spill over” into real life because our psyche cannot contain such strife within. It is simply too painful. To ease the tension we “project” our shadow onto other people. We react brusquely, Jung says, to a person who demonstrates our hidden desires. When we deeply harbor a penchant for vulgarity our ego reacts when witnessing people who are loud, irritating and shallow. We show our displeasure, it is seen by the other and the once-internal battle is now open conflict. Worse, says Jung, when the collective shadow operates as a projection onto another group of people, like in the case of the Nazi Germans in their hate-campaign and genocide against the Jews in WWII. The Nazis operationalized a long-standing deep-seated resentment against the Jews, who as close-knit communities of bankers and merchants, were seen as usurers, evil puppet-masters, and plotters to overthrow national governments.  

Valenzuela’s works on paper and in terracotta tries to give visual expression to the strife of the imagination and self as potential roots of public and mass conflict. The covered faces of his terra cotta heads imply “mystery and unfamiliarity” with the true nature of our companions and colleagues. This image of the veiled and the obscure point out to the incomprehensible nature of otherness as potential cause of our social tensions.  

Art as alethea
In War Zone Valenzuela has taken the position of revealer of the “worlds-behind-the-scenes”. Artistic exposition of personal and social conflict notwithstanding the young artist offers no solution. His current work functions as aletheia: an unfolding, an exposure, a revelation of a discomforting truth. Far however from “conscientizing”, in a re-phrasing of Paolo Freire’s concept of art as teaching tool, Valenzuela’s expose is not towards public change but is a forceful expression bent on encouraging catharsis in the heart and mind. Catharsis is a Greek concept associated with watching tragedy. It is said that by watching suffering and painful truths about life, one identifies with the pain and terror and thus liberates the consciousness from the fear of suffering in his own personal life. What, indeed does he have to be afraid of? Tragedy shows that all men suffer and that through compassion we are liberated from it.  

Similarly Valenzuela’s first works is a study in cathartic imagery. We are encouraged to see within us the division, the strife and the pain of conflict. The gauntlet of self-understanding is the first instance towards enlightenment and authenticity. In the same manner as War Zone is Mark Valenzuela’s first instance of unfolding of artistic resolve, it can also be our first step into self-understanding.