No empire lasts forever, and yet the paraphernalia of bureaucracy just

might be an immortal facet of human civilization. The Northern New

Mexico based artist Mark A. Rodriguez has developed a series of wall-

mounted sculptures that explores the rich symbolism of one of these

anachronistic tokens of state power: the postage stamp. Like its more

glamorous cousin—paper money—the humble stamp is a printed

image endowed with special powers by its author: the federal

government. Though these officially sanctioned printmaking projects

have vital economic functions, they also possess an aesthetic

dimension intended to appeal to the citizenry who will use them. Over

the years the United States Postal Service has created miniature

memorials to countless people, places, events, technologies, natural

wonders, and bland nationalist symbols. And while many of the people

and events commemorated are no longer part of public discourse, these

postage stamps capture a glimpse of the society that produced them.

Though there are many who collect and study postage stamps,

Rodriguez does not ask his viewers to be such connoisseurs. Instead, he

creates richly textured and boldly colored sculptures that frame each

stamp and amplify its visual presence. Made from sculptamold and

plywood, these chunky ovals resemble the wrinkled skin of moldy

cheese, or a technicolored ball of ragged dough. Rodriguez creates rich

layering by painting, smudging, and rubbing these surfaces. This

approach creates a dynamic in which all the mimetic energy is

concentrated in a small flat rectangle surrounded by the wild physical

energy of his sculptural materials. It is as if the potency of these

official symbols becomes sublimated into an ambient cloud of haptic

noise. As viewers, we can oscillate between the specificity of the

stamp’s iconography and the abstract physicality of the material that

surrounds them. This approach allows space for both the visual

pleasure and acute pathos of these tiny images and their unruly

containers.

One of Rodriguez’s works contains a “forever” stamp that features a

close crop of the statue of liberty’s green face seen from below. On the

left side of the stamp are the words: “USA FIRST CLASS

FOREVER”. The implausibility of this phrase resonates loudly. In this

piece Rodriguez divides his sculptural frame into four equal sections

and places the stamp between the upper two quadrants—which is

bright red with black flecks. Each of the other quadrants contains the

same texture but different colored paint. Instead of “E pluribus unum”

(out of many, one), this work seems to suggest that ours is merely one

of many empires destined to eventually disintegrate. - Peter Brock