Quisqueya Henríquez Partial Vision, 2011 The title refers to a description of Louise Lawler’s art, making reference to the way she photographs the work of other artists. She is known to capture images of artwork already exhibited in a gallery or home, in order to incorporate the environmental aspects surrounding it. Taking the concept of “partial vision” to the next level, Henríquez cuts a portrait of Marcel Duchamp five times in different sizes, making it nearly impossible to identify the iconic artist. By overlapping his portraits, Henríquez creates a radiating effect that underscores the surrounding space in a rhythmic and optical vision, thus working in contrast to Lawler’s documentary approach. The colorful grid that Henríquez gains from photographing Duchamp’s portrait
Quisqueya Henríquez America’s Decadence, 2011 In America’s Decadence, Henríquez combines two images: Gordon MattaClark’s Splitting (1974), which features a house he sawed in half that was about to be demolished in Englewood, New Jersey, with an anonymous photograph of an abandoned house in a Santo Domingo neighborhood. Influenced by Alejo Carpentier’s book entitled La Ciudad de las Columnas (The City of Columns), in which he discusses the blend of architectural styles in Havana, Henríquez began observing her surroundings more carefully. She recognized the inspiration of European and North American styles in her own neighborhood, as well as the decadence displayed in the city’s growing preference to demolish architecture instead of choosing to restore it. By inserting the image of the Dominican home in between
from her computer screen not only accentuates this outward movement, but becomes intensified by her additional layer of drawing.
Matta-Clark’s halved house, Henríquez unites the two structures to represent the similar thought processes leading to their destructions: progress. The colorful gridlike areas surrounding the black-andwhite images emphasize this movement of development and symbolically help to echo the meaning of the title.