Artist’s
Statement
I was born in Santiago de Cuba, July 17th 1963. The home in which I was raised
was always closely linked with art. I was surrounded by clay objects; plaster
figures, broken molds, as well as the artistic debates sustained by the various
artists and art history professors in my family. This environment strongly
influenced my artistic inclination.
I studied and grew up under Cuba’s isolated, Socialist system. This reality changed very little until the early 90’s when the island was subjected to abject scarcity produced by the fall of the Soviet Union -- which had previously helped to support us. By necessity, this scarcity forced Cuba to open up to the capitalist world. From that point on, the reality around me began to shift—revealing new symbols of private property, tourism and the power of the dollar in commercializing art.
During this time I chose bronze as my medium (cast from scrap in a foundry I built myself). My goal with this series was to assemble objects and images from different natural sources that were around me to create new images and new messages. Through small-scale sculptures characterized by the manipulation of objects from my environment, I succeeded both in expressing myself artistically and alleviating the harsh economic crisis in which I was living. Because bronze was a material few artists used in the Oriente region, it was attractive to foreign collectors and I sold a great deal of work. The resulting figures were symbolic within the Cuban cultural context.
Since arriving in the United States in 2000, my interaction with a new “reality” has generated a series of vital experiences full of different codes and signifiers. Finding the means and medium to maintain and express my identity within my new reality is one of the great challenges that I face today. The process of adapting to a new socio-cultural system can become a sort of battle where the loser ends up dissolved into nothingness—losing oneself to the masses- and in fact contributing to the expansion of the masses. The winner is the one who has adapted without losing his own identity.
Fusion, Identity and Transculturization are the phases that form part of the adaptation process. These are some of the themes reflected in my art currently. My work revolves around what man resorts to in order to not stop being who he is. It is about avoiding looking back and not recognizing your own past.
Today painting is what affords
me both a process and a medium to express myself. The process pushes me to
reflect and find creative solutions to reaffirm my identity.