Queens Museum of Art- Espada

Espada, done by Rolando Lopez Dirube in Cuba in 1976, is a teak wood plank stuck inside a marble base.  Rolando Lopez Dirube was born in Cuba in 1928 and died in Puerto Rico in 1997.  At first glance Espada looks like a giant disproportional popsicle.  The long auburn teakwook plank extending farther in length than the perfectly cut rectangular marble base.  The entire piece measured about five and a half feet from top to bottom.  The marble base was perfectly cut from Dark Emperador marble which gave it a light brown and white randomly stripped pattern.  The teakwood plank curved ever so slightly to the left and was a dark auburn color.

While walking in the exhibit, Espada caught my eye because it was the only exhibit in the room that wasn’t a painting.  Upon closer inspection I found out that Espada means sword in Spanish.  Immediately, I thought of the story of the sword in the stone, ironically which is what this exhibit was supposed to be.  I wondered if this piece symbolized a distress call for a hero that would pull Cuba out of its troubles.  In the story, the sword could only be pulled out of the stone buy the true king and quell the wars that would ensue if no heir to the throne was found.  In reality it could mean that if something was not done, violence could break out in Cuba.  After doing some research I discovered that in 1976, Cuba ratified it’s socialist constitution marking a historic change in government.