Caribbean Art Objects

This weekend, I visited the El Museo del Barrio for its Caribbean Arts exhibit. Among the many pieces I saw, two in particular piqued my interest.

The first object is a piece by Milton Rosa-Ortiz titled “Olaja!/Hopefully!” from Puerto Rico. Made in 2005  Olaja! is a structure made of pieces of arranged glass. The piece resembles a small chandelier in size and appearance. Each shard of glass is translucent and reflective. Olaja! hangs high from the ceiling and is connected and kept together by thin wires. One side of the piece is highly dense, but towards the other side, there are less and less glass shards bundled together.

I chose Olaja! because it was aesthetically pleasing and because it stood out to me in the exhibit. Most of the other objects in the exhibit were paintings so Ortiz’s shiny, three-dimensional work pleasantly surprised me. The way the glass and its reflection worked with the lighting of the room particularly grabbed my attention. According to its description, the pieces of glass were found on the beaches of Guánica which highlights the American landing on those beaches during the Spanish-American War. Initially, I had thought that Milton’s piece was made to illustrate the beauty of ordinary things and to highlight the idea of parts of a whole coming together. Upon obtaining some background information, it was clear that Olaja! is recalling the hope felt by the people at the end of the Spanish-American war and its transition from a dense object to a subtler one conveys the fleeting nature of such hope.

The second object is “Vue de Base-terre, Guadeloupe” by Emile Goury made in France in 1839. Vue de Basse-terre Guadeloupe is an oil canvas piece. As its title suggests, it is a landscape of Guadeloupe. The picture shows a boy standing along a pathway. The sky is a deep blend of orange and purple and an orange-purple shaded layer envelopes the whole piece. The sun has just begun to set and the shading of the boy and his surroundings reflect this. Mountains can be seen in the background and fresh greenery is abundant. To the boy’s right is a placid lake.

The colors of Goury’s piece were what called out to me. The color of the sky dictated the palette used for the whole piece and the prominent orange and purple shade seemed like the perfect blend between warm and cold colors. Using these colors, Goury depicts the peaceful and naturally beautiful life in rural Guadeloupe. Although it seems as if nature is the focal point of the piece, the boy’s presence seems accentuated. He only takes up a comparatively small portion of the canvas, but his bare feet and wrinkled clothes add a human element to an otherwise nature-filled landscape. I found myself asking what the boy’s story is and where he is heading. Is his appearance reflective of a low social standing, or is it just the cultural norm? Did he stop in the middle of whatever he was doing to take a look at the beautiful scenery, or is he accustomed to the view and just going about his day? The landscape, if it were by itself, would be incapable of generating such questions and Goury uses the boy to illustrate a kind of connectedness between people and nature.