06.09.2022

#85

Through this section, monthly, we invite agents of the artistic system to share a selection of images related to their practice or current interests. Images are published daily in the header of our website and shared through our Instagram profile. At the end of the month, the complete selection of images is published together with a text that contextualizes them. Here is the selection of August 2022.

The selection of works for Marginalia #85 is a manifesto and praise to the rural space, it is there where I live and work, it is there where stories of marooning, struggle and care for the land still emanate, it is the peasantry who maintains the knowledge of the plants that inspire me and it is in its mountains and beaches where the scenarios of the stories I want to tell are.

Possibly one of the experiences that most excites me in my artistic practice is when the materials define the narratives. Ethnobotany is the basis of my latest works, living in the midst of the natural environment is a privilege because I can observe and investigate every living being that accompanies me and I have direct access to the materials I use.  It is of vital important that I question myself about my actions through nature, I have assumed my activism in relation to climate justice, because capitalism does not give truce and I believe I have a responsibility with my art against the environmental and social crisis that we all face.

It was through photography and improvisation during the processes of the Yagua ko series that I was able to go beyond painting the skins of the models and transmit the experience on paper. Studying botany constantly reveals to me new paths to heal, repair or understand things of our past. In the Dominican Republic there is an official history where blackness is in an opaque context, it is like the palm of the palm, it is not easy to reach the hidden in its envelope, but removing the layers allows us to embrace our history and find the answers that still remain in oralities and memories of our Afro-descendant communities.

Working with elements of nature I have learned something important: to cultivate patience. The rhythm and the times are not measured by the needs imposed by professional commitments, the units we use to measure the periods are not useful and the intervals are shortened or dilated depending on multiple factors that cannot be controlled. It is an organic process that in itself contradicts issues of capitalism and its need for urgency and immediacy.  Each plant, fungus or animal has its intrinsic character and life cycle, from its observation and reflection I extract allegories that I use to capture the contemporary stories of what is happening.

I harbor more questions than answers, I still have a lot of ignorance in relation to living beings and the threats to the ecosystems we inhabit. Lately an interpellation has taken hold of my conscience: How can I create—in a context of material contraction—while being coherent with my thinking, how can art contribute to transform not only thinking but also the habits and customs that have been instilled in us through a system based on the needs of capitalist consumption? It would be catastrophic to think that nothing can be done when living in a fragile region such as the Antilles. In a territory shared with Ayiti, it is impossible to avoid such a complex and problematic socio-political reality, and it is imperative to seek solutions that involve the people over and above political inaction.

Through the craftsmanship of my paper and pigments, using the resources available to me in the most sustainable and efficient way possible, are some of those answers. The apparent naivety or simplicity of my works contrasts with the syncretism or complexity of the use of my language of symbols, the guari kreyol, in combination with the symbology of the materials.

Reviewing my drawings for the selection of Marginalia85 in which I represent the human being in traditional situations, whether in work, enjoyment or contemplation, I am aware of the desire to transport my community and family to a future outside the dystopias that sell us, to a utopia that connects us with the root of what we once were, tribes and peoples in tune with the nature to which we belong and where everything makes sense.

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