Nov
15
Caribbean Arts: El Museo Del Barrio
November 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment
East Harlem, home to El Museo Del Barrio, is a vibrant and diverse neighborhood with a largely Latino population. El Museo displays art that portrays the juxtaposition of themes central to Hispanic history as well as the current culture and struggles of its peoples. Many of the works highlight motifs of cultural crossover and movement, natural and bodily elements such as food, blood, and sweat, and the effects of imperialism and conflict. The interior of the museum itself is reminiscent of its neighborhood; bright and lively, with most of its information written in Spanish, it contains complex, emotional works that reveal both deep struggles and the beauty of culture and everyday life. The viewer becomes connected to and personally involved with the art as the museum lights constantly cast his shadow on the walls and the works. Two works of art, Emergía by Mexican artist Miguel Rodriguez Sepulveda and Macondo as Seen by Leo Matiz by Colombian artist Leo Matiz, embody themes of bodily elements and oppression as well as cultural beauty.
Emergía, a conceptual work of performance art created and filmed in 2007, is displayed in El Museo as a looped video showing a succession of four different people running in place in a white room and facing away from the viewer, the camera focused onto their torsos. They each have a different image painted on their backs, and as they run, their sweat causes the paint to drip, changing the art and creating new images. The images, which include a portrait of Simón Bolívar, are symbols of liberation from the Spanish colonialism of Central and South America. Each loop runs about eight-and-a-half minutes before it begins again with no pause, creating fluid and endless actions of running and sweating. The images are painted in black, and the viewer, who may walk up to the video at any point of its duration, witnesses a slightly different and thus constantly new and evolving artwork each time he looks at the piece. At first, the images change very gradually, but as the participants continue to run and sweat, the paintings rapidly melt, warp, and drip down their backs, creating abstract art out of simple portraits.
Sepulveda’s piece is strangely compelling. The movement of the runners creates a repetitive and tedious rhythm while the paint slowly forms intricate, abstract, and interesting shapes on their backs. The content of the work is not immediately clear to the viewer and so sparks his intrigue and curiosity, because whether he sees the piece from the beginning or from the middle, the process of running and sweating that changes the original painting cannot become apparent to the viewer unless he stays to discover the repeating pattern in the work. There is an apparent pointlessness to the action of running in place because no actual progress is made. However, examining the piece more closely reveals the many different ways in which it can be interpreted. The infinite looping of the video may reflect the constant physical and emotional struggle of Latinos to overcome colonialism. The focus on the back, which can be whipped, burnt in the sun, or bent under heavy loads, connotes the weight of imperialism, oppression, and forced labor, as well as the immense difficulty of freeing a nation from unjust colonial powers and developing a unique, thriving, and stable culture. It may also represent the idea that simple survival requires an endless struggle; the runners in the piece stay in one place although they are running and sweating. This reflects the local difficulties that East Harlem has with poverty, drug abuse, and crime as well as the similar contemporary problems faced by Central and South America. The piece could also demonstrate the relationship between Hispanic peoples and their heroes, and how over time the struggle for autonomy has changed and developed into new and modern forms that reflect the gradual yet immense progress of Latinos within their own communities.
Macondo as Seen by Leo Matiz, a series of black and white photographs taken in the northern Caribbean region of Colombia from 1930 to 1960, focuses on the simplicity and beauty of landscape and culture. The individual images are usually untitled, allowing the composition and content of the photographs to reveal their own subtle connotations to the viewer. One photograph reflects specific aspects of Latino culture especially well: it is the portrait of a woman balancing a large bowl of leaves and plantains on her head. Her expression is weathered and wise, squinting slightly in the bright sun and wearing a patient and knowing smile. The composition of the photograph, as well as the contrast between light and dark, emphasizes the woman’s strong, muscular neck and arm. Her arm is bent slightly and she is using it to balance the bowl, which visually connects the woman to the fruit as it leads the eye of the viewer up through the photograph. The vertical continuity of the bowl of bananas and the woman communicates both balance and solidity.
Matiz’s photograph is beautiful due to its composition and its content. The simple, balanced, aesthetically pleasing arrangement of shapes created by the woman, her arm, and the bowl of plantains creates a visual beauty that is only enhanced by the dramatic contrast of black and white. However, the true power and beauty of the photograph lies in its honest expression of Hispanic peoples and their distinct cultures. The emphasis on the woman’s muscles highlights Latina power, hard work, and determination, but these aspects of strength are connected through the natural visual movement of the photograph to the woman’s face, communicating the necessity of wisdom to regulate power. The plantains, so ripe that they are beginning to split open, represent the natural abundance of simple and nutritious foods in the Caribbean and importance of landscape and traditional dishes to Hispanic culture. The simple qualities of the photograph and the woman’s tattered white shirt may also reflect the physical poverty that exists in many Hispanic countries and also the beauty in a different type of poverty: the poverty of landscape, of the sky, of a bowl of fruit, which is not negative but is instead an aesthetic poverty, a minimalism, and a focus on the value in the bare and basic qualities of life. The photograph reflects the beauty in a Latino culture that is strong, resilient, nurturing, and wise.
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