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Francis joined the trend of many North American artists of the time of singing songs in Spanish, with their accents reflecting imperialist policies and attitudes of exoticness. “I am interested in issues of identity, otherness, self-awareness and movement. My work navigates in the binary systems trying to find hybridity; I investigate on how our hierarchies have been built mostly from historical inequalities that are still perpetuated, and the body as a conditioned receptor and interpreter of these distinctions. In my work, as an alternative to such hierarchical denominations, I try to create several positions of power, often contradictory but operating simultaneously”. Conversation with Joiri Minaya Tell us about your background as an artist and the scenarios in which you have shown your work. When I was 14 I went to high school in the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. For me Fine Arts was a key to gain more independence in questioning things. Then, at age 17, I went abroad to Belgium for one year. When I returned to the Dominican Republic, I went to the Escuela de Diseño of Altos de Chavón. Chavón was also incredibly influential. It is admirable what they do there. Then in Chavón, I won a scholarship to finish school in Parsons. In Parsons I began to understand other valid ways of making art. I began to understand mediums that have more to do with processes such as performance, installation and video. Media that I knew and saw, but did not think it was something I could do, because I had not even an entry to that world or language. I had the space to explore those issues in class, I had the guidance of teachers, and learnt from history, and that gives you the needed validation and lets you feel that you can do it too. That is also a school, a space of experience. That’s my educational experience in the arts. Talk to us about your artwork in the XXV Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes The piece of the XXV Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes is called Siboney. It is a multidisciplinary piece. It consists of a hand-painted mural, based on a pattern I found when I was in Parsons. There was a recycling center where students discard not used materials and other students could use them, and I went there one day and found this fabric that has a pattern of tropical flowers that for me was beautiful and visually sexy. For me, the pattern represented how other cultures may see
our culture, and the idea of painting it repeatedly and exhaustively in a huge wall has to do with the process of internalizing the idea of what I should be for someone else. For me, it relates to the Caribbean identity or Caribbean woman identity. The second part of the work is a performance in which I wash the wall. And this part refers to the denial of the idea that I have to meet a stereotype. I wash the wall while the song “Siboney” plays. With this piece I refer to the Caribbean women stereotypes. I became interested in it more from my experience of living outside: when I lived in Belgium and the time I have lived in New York. In Belgium I lived in a town where there was not much diversity. I was in a school for a year and my classmates, after they were a little closer to me, were like “Oh! Can I touch you hair?” “I’ve never seen hair like that” and the curiosity of not knowing and wanting to understand another culture is logical. But also, Belgium in particular has a history of colonization and imperialism in Congo, and the ideas they have of a person who looks like me can be informed from that history. Then, I was not conscious about that, but looking back I guess there began my interest in the stereotypes that I can represent to another person. Then, in New York, is much more diverse, but there are still times that people are like “oh! You look so exotic! Where are you from?” and “oh, Dominican!” Then, by the tone in which people say it, I wonder what ideas were circulating in their head of what I must be. I became interested in the pattern and the song because I associate the two elements with a specific era that is perhaps the 1950s or earlier, in which Cuba was like a vacation spot for North Americans and many interactions took place there, and not only in Cuba, but the rest of the Antilles, but I guess Cuba is the strongest example of the construction of the stereotype of the Caribbean women. Now let me talk about the song… “Siboney” was composed by Ernesto Lecuona in 1929 and supposedly wrote it being away from Cuba, missing his homeland. Eduardo Brito, who was a Dominican baritone, then popularized it and I guess it has been interpreted by many singers like many songs from that era. And Connie Francis has a version. The first time I heard that version was in a Hong Kong film; titled 2046. But I’ve also seen it in perfume ads, with a woman in a tropical land, and all uses of this song also respond to the stereotype of what people imagine the song is about. The song is very sensual, it has some drums and
other things that make you think of something exotic or somewhere far away if you do not come from that place… perhaps that’s what interested me in the first place. Then what also interested me is that when Connie Francis sings it, it becomes like a need, or in this case, of gender, because she is a woman singing to a man: “Siboney, I love you, I am dying for your love”. And as many love songs, but particularly this metaphor, presents the woman in need of this man, or the Caribbean needing the first world nations. Regularly I address many issues about the woman or the idea of the construction of the female gender, the relationship between self and other and how both side determinate each other. I also address hierarchies, how hierarchies are established in relation to gender, society or politics. Randy Morales (Rands) (Santo Domingo 1987) He studied Fine Arts and Illustration at the La Escuela de Diseño Altos de Chavón, La Romana, Dominican Republic, and Parsons The New School fro Design, New York, United States. He is currently doing his MA in Animation and Movement Arts at Pratt Institute. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Fantasías de mi entorno familiar. 2014 Installation. Videoart, furniture Loop projection Variable Dimensions Artist’s statement I work with images that tell stories of past times; that create an extract of the forgotten moments and illuminate the unconsciousness of those times, evoking a collision of nostalgia and emotions that results in self-discovery. During this exploration, I show myself as I am, visualizing my future according to my growing up environment, and the influence of my family. In the videos that support my work, illustrative images engage with established elements, serving as a cognitive study of a curious child. “My work focuses on secret stories of my life, created from vague memories, real moments, impressions and dreams that have retained to / from / in my early life, which have been nurtured to maturity”. Conversation with Randy Morales Tell us about your background as an artist and the scenarios in which you have shown your work.
It all started when my mother enrolled us, me and my younger brother, in painting classes. When I graduated from college, I had no idea of what to study; I just knew it had to be something related to the arts. For a while, I studied graphic design at APEC and there I learned what illustration was. Immediately, I realized that I was in the wrong career. I spent a year outside the country and decided to return to study at the The School of Design of Altos de Chavón where I graduated in Fine Arts and Illustration. I then transfer to Parsons in New York and finish my degree in Illustration. I am currently pursuing a Master of Animation and Digital Arts at Pratt Institute in New York. How is your working process and what issues are you interested in? Most of the time my work comes from scribbles, not necessarily having a concrete idea. After that, I start to refine everything according to the theme I choose to work. I love that my work has spontaneity and improvisation to solve problems during the production process. When creating, I don’t like the idea of only focusing on certain subjects. I have noticed that unconsciously there are always present topics or elements related to intimacy, family, death, abjection and ambiguity of realities. Talk to us about your artwork in the XXV Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes Fantasías de mi retrato familiar is the final part of a series I started working more than a year ago. This piece is personal; I do a cognitive exploration of my childhood through recorded family events, intervened by animations such as a device to illustrate my way of seeing things back then. Initially the piece was conceived only as a video but I had the need to expand from a two-dimensional format to a four-dimensional format, to recreate the most important space of a traditional family, the living room, where they gather around to watch these videos of memories and thus, invite viewers to participate and be part of my world at that moment.
Jochi Muñoz (San Francisco de Macorís, 1964) Artist who lives and works in Santo Domingo, where he develops his work as professor of dance, independent creator of performing arts and performance. He was awarded the prize in the XXV Bienal Nacional of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.