Much in to renaissance themes of heaven, hell and the middle plane seemingly inspired by Dante II Purgatorio, IMMINENT portrays the inevitably of cyclic occurrences in the afterlife. Running a total of 204 x 1,744 cms.,in length, the painting unfold like a story, with the first installment presenting the staging area for souls awaiting judgment, ethereal beings rendered with solidity and still- human characteristics with the accompanying worldly emotions and memories of the flesh. Despair, uncertainty and gloom seem to pervade these tortured souls. Seen in details, one soul scrutinizes himself in a mirror, probably trying to screen whatever memories might still be left in his consciousness, the knowledge of his life on earth. There is hesitation teetering on the on the helpless realization of fate as the mirror transforms into a prism that gathers all the images and compresses it into one concentrated beam of right and wrong, filtered into direct hit towards the heart of the spirit. The heart, an integral part of the human anatomy, signifies life, emotion and centering. The soul knows the whole truth in his heart, in the essence of his being, there is no denying this truth, no excuse is plausible enough now that the opportunity to make amends is lost in death.Rubio spirits, instead of floating ethereally as they are usually portrayed in art, are burdened with the gravity of their humanity, making them vulnerable still to the forces that might have influenced their actions and the choices they made before embarking on the inescapable journey to the afterlife. With the frailty of their humanity still intact and highly visible, they are thrown into limbo where portals point to either perpetual glory or unending doom, an evanescent plane where they are disempowered and a higher force rules above all. As they get to the last stage, the final judgment, they are weighted according to the substance of their earthly existence and direct into eternal damnation or given opportunity to rectify themselves in rebirth. A string of turquoise leads the soul of their quest, guiding with a flowing line at one segment and angles showing peaks and valleys in the others, bearing emphasis as a silent witness from beginning to end. With Imminent, Rubio dissects the raw human emotion of fear of the inevitable, the undefined and the unknown. With no attempt to moralize or cram symbolism into the painting as a means to make it more meaningful and weight it down unnecessary figures and objects, the artist explores they the theme of the afterlife as the journey that is supposed to be. This is the in-between, the transition between life and the beyond, where only good and evil matter, yet there are no references to religiosity. Who determines in the end, what is right and wrong? We ask thinking individuals, with our biases and unique personal history, live in self-righteous justification as we decide on our everyday choices. Can we justify these choices even in the afterlife, where we are stripped of control and clout has no bearing? Preying on this uncertainty, Rubio sets up visual imagery to confront audiences with their own fallibility and forces them to dwell on self-examination. Faced with what is imminent, the audience is pushed reflection. Yet with all the desolation and irresoluteness that pervades the richly toned and textured painting, with all its loops and hard edges and jagged lines, in the end there appears a glimmer of hope that we might be on the right path after all.
Kaye O’yek
2007
