Dario Robleto's tour de force exhibition “An Instinct Towards Life” encompasses the past decade of work by the Houston based artist, as well as a new sculpture, “The Defiant Garden,” created specifically for the Denver showing. Robleto's process and methods for visual art can be favorably compared to that of 'sampling' in the contemporary music sphere. Samples for the evocative “Defiant Garden” include homemade paper pulp from soldiers sent to families and wives from various different wars, WW II era pigeon message capsules, hair flowers braided by war widows, excavated shrapnel, carrier pigeon skeletons, fabric from the different wars, dried flowers from various battlefields and mourning dress fabrics. The goal of the exhibition is to confront and examine the effects and experience of not just our current wars, but to establish a continuum with past conflicts. Robleto's sculptures meticulously interpret the traumatic repercussions of battle both for those directly engaged in combat, but also those back on the home front, with an extraordinary sensitivity and a fascinating blueprint.
