FITS-Caps -Creating from a Distance-Artists under Quarantine
#arte_FITS.FOUNDATION has been working with Sala de Exposiciones del Plata in Dorado Puerto Rico for the last five years as an Urban Regenerator Program. The Foundation understands that though the present-day world is momentarily paused creativity, imagination and humankind carry on. Taking advantage of this opportunity, we decided to continue the activities at #SEP virtually. Four new projects have been developed as a collaboration meant to explore #newwaysofseeingXXI. It will be a fun challenging experiment with a happy ending.
Capsule 1.
The Puerto Rican artist Pseudomero in this first capsule ¨Creating from The distance¨ tells us about his creative experience from isolation in his studio and residence, as well as his creative heritage and his future plans. In the next capsules we will see his new series that has as its theme the pandemic and the new social situation.
Capsule 2.
The creative process begins long before the artist picks up his tools to materialize a piece. In fact, it all starts with an idea, questioning, or a concern.
In this video Pseudomero shows us the light box he uses to trace and make original drawings. He explores the theme of Covid-19 from various perspectives: human anatomy, geography, politics, etc. The work we will see is a masterful combination of words, lines and colors, which moves from pencil to ink, from local to universal. The artist depicts a “parallel verse”, as he has entitled one of his series, on paper for each of us to interpret or complete its meaning.
Capsule 3.
In this last capsule, Pseudomero presents the work Risk of suffocation. It is an ink drawing on millimeter paper wherein many elements associated with one theme are combined: the pandemic and its consequences. Playing with a variety of semantic content and positing an open criticism of the current situation, the artist begins the video with the message “Please wait”, a phrase that appears constantly on the website of the Puerto Rican Department of Labor to those who wish to apply for unemployment benefits.
The title of the work alludes both to physical suffocation, as a consequence of the virus, and to the distress caused by media, political and government manipulation. Words in various languages, maps, masks, syringes, song phrases, instructions for the use of medicines, etc. are combined with drawings of human anatomy and characters from Puerto Rican art history in order to form a complex and significant whole.
Capsule 1.
In this first capsule of the project of the Sala de Exposiciones del Plata “Creating from a distance”, the artist Sofía Maldonado talks about how the quarantine has led her to investigate the relationship between art and nature more profoundly. Sofía, who has stood out as a muralist and designer, has always been interested in femininity and its different aspects. From her studio, she discusses the importance of collaborative projects and color in her work.
Capsule 2.
On this occasion, Sofía Maldonado invites us into her studio-garden. Her day begins with the practice of Kundalini Yoga and she talks about the leaves of the cupey – a tree native to the Caribbean region. Sofia is interested in its dry leaves, the color changes they undergo and the unique shapes each one develops over time. These leaves are the main element of the work she has carried out during the quarantine. We will see the result of her creative process in our final capsule.
Capsule 3.
To round off the Creating from a distance: Artists in quarantine capsules, Sofía Maldonado decided to recount many of the works she has produced outdoors. It appears to be an invitation to leave her studio in order to appreciate the city, even in its least pleasant aspects, such as the abandonment of many architectural structures. Her Kalaña project, carried out within an old tobacco factory, is an example of the use of color and abstraction to create a sense of community.
Music, nature and urban art have been essential elements in Maldonado’s artistic search, and there is no doubt that her participation in the projects hosted by the Sala de Exposiciones del Plata (S.E.P.) has been a decisive step in positioning this space as a true urban regenerator.
Capsule 1.
Within the framework of the project Creating from a distance, the artist Eduardo Cabrer describes his strategies for overcoming the difficulties involved in being under quarantine for the audience of the Sala de Exposiciones del Plata (S.E.P). His studio is his refuge, his world, and from there he reflects on his creative process and the relationship between the artist and the person who interprets his work. For Eduardo, visual language is the best way to express his concerns and thoughts and considers art a healing instrument. Discover his interest in exploring topics such as: Still life, Puerto Rican identity and nostalgia in this video.
The isolation period, according to Eduardo, is an opportunity to dialogue visually with other artists, as well as develop other themes, which include Puerto Rican candies and identity.
Capsule 2.
The long quarantine has forced Eduardo Cabrer to deal with the lack of materials, and, furthermore, to increasingly question the issues he was developing before physical distancing was implemented.
His most recent series touching on Puerto Rican sweets gives way to the plants within his quotidian surroundings. Cabrer narrates his ever-changing process for us. For the first time, he will work with oil paint, a material that does not dry quickly and one which will allow him to transform his painting day by day. In the end, in his confinement, the artist opens up to new plastic adventures.
Capsule 3.
In his last capsule for the project Creating from a Distance: Artists in Quarantine, Eduardo Cabrer analyzes two of the works he has managed to finish during his long quarantine. Both belong to the Lollipops series. In these pieces the theme is abstracted by enlarging the image of said sweet’s wrapper. It gives the impression that they are being squeezed; the “dripping” effect is evident in one of them. Despite a bright color palette, a certain heaviness is perceived in the shapes. For Cabrer, these pieces represent a moment of pressure, like the one experienced in confinement. At the same time, they offer the artist a modicum of freedom, an opportunity to clear his head of a situation that he expected to be less overwhelming.
Capsule 1.
A Venezuelan artist based in Milan, Ramírez has an established career, which includes important solo and group exhibitions in many cities around the world.
He has been the focus of public attention for his “living” sculptures, where the inert comes to life and the kinetic is mechanized.
In his quarantine, ongoing for more than two months, Alfredo has returned to a series of drawings developed throughout his life. These deal with helical shapes, reflecting the movement of a propeller, which the artist has transferred from paper to monumental sculptures.
Capsule 2.
In this video/work of art, Alfredo Ramírez utilize a steadicam to lead us through the chiaroscuro interior of his dwelling.
He walks down a hall while meditating on desire, love, and carnality. Each room he passes is illuminated with images of his quotidian world until we reach the piece: Tubo de Carne, (Meat tube), 1995, an extended profile wherein the organs we carry are externalized: bones, heart, innards, sex. His poetic reflection culminates with a quote from Lacan: “We are overcome by desire and our will does not count.” In the artist’s quarantine we can perceive that “there is no work, no end, only an infinite succession of versions and variations” (Byung-Chul Han, The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering. p 65)
Capsule 3.
Alfredo Ramírez’s reflections accompany the interesting images of vertebral columns made with different materials and in various artistic versions. He meditates and his thoughts meander, as he presents the pieces made in the past that constitute his present during the quarantine.
In this video the creative process is cerebral, emotional, and spiritual, simultaneously. We see the material of the sculptures exposed to extreme cold, water, and electric currents; these are elaborate experiments made by the artist in which the subjection of the elements arrives at a poetic result. Ramírez tells us about the spinal column and its infinite functions: cosmic antenna, as a dream laboratory, or an energetic structure. In short, he understands the spinal cord as “the house of intuitions and of the notion of time and space”.
Héctor Collazo has painted 65 large format flags throughout the Puerto Rican landscape since 2016, after his brother’s suicide. What was initially a therapeutic act for Héctor —traveling the island while in a heartrending mourning and appreciating the natural and cultural wealth— has become a community project in which the inhabitants of each municipality support each other to manifest the most loved and respected national symbol.
During the quarantine, Collazo, who is a nurse and understands the importance of social distancing to combat the pandemic, has delayed obtaining his final objective. He believes that with the support of arte_FITS.Foundation and Sala de Exposiciones del Plata, Dorado will be the 67th community with their own unifying flag in the very near future.