Paradox of a New Landscape
In the series of works carried out in the MASS MoCA residency, I was committed to representing specific post-Maria events that uncovered years of social "malpractice" and that affected the day-to-day psyche of Puerto Rico that I had left behind for six weeks. I am not interested in re-telling the literal story, but from the failures and fictional spaces as a point of departure, I start to gesticulate an aesthetic paradigm, to build a dystopian or hybrid landscape that contradicts the “official” narrative of the hurricane’s aftermath.
In this series, I incorporate the generic typology of shipping containers used as “practical solutions” during the handling of the biggest emergency Puerto Ricans have been faced with. Containers used to transport food, containers as places to deposit the dead, containers as temporary government offices and containers as classrooms in schools encourage various concerns regarding human frailty and the dignity of being. I begin to re-create a landscape with the different archetypes of our pseudo-country impoverished by its leadership and overshadowed by the petty and evasive policies of our masters.
Paradox of the New Landscape III, 2018, oil on canvas, 48″ x 60″, Landrón Collection.
Paradox of a New Landscape II, 2018, oil on canvas, 39″ x 46″, Alexis Figueroa collection.
Paradox of the New Landscape IV, 2018, oil on canvas, 48″ x 96″, Jonathan Marvel collection.
Paradox of a New Landscape I, 2018, oil on canvas, 39″ x 46″, Blair Benjamin collection.
Installation view at MassMoCA open studios.