Joseph Kattou in Conversation with Jessica Beckwith Jessica Beckwith: Once the violence of governments has made its mark, the people are left to make a life within these new circumstances. How do you feel that the presence of these different cultures, and violence, suppression, as well as cohabitation, have affected the Taino people and culture? Joseph Kattou: The tricky thing about these sorts of generational traumas is that they never go away. The colonization by Spain nearly destroyed the Taino people, and once they destroyed their population the Colonists began to bring in enslaved Africans to continue the forced labor. This displacement lead us to a very thorough creolization that is very apparent in the modern day. The masks of Puerto Rico take artistic and cultural cues from not only the indigenous Taino, but the descendants of enslaved Africans as well, all fit within a Spanish-dominated cultural industry. JB: How has this history affected you and your family? Did those personal experiences inform and inspire this series of masks? The history of Spain’s occupation is still very apparent in the culture, language, architecture and just about every facet of life in Puerto Rico. The later conquest by the United States, who have historically enacted violence against the people, means that no living Puerto Rican has known an island that was not under Colonial rule from an outside force. It leads to a certain adaptability and composite cultural identity that Puerto Ricans actively shape. The Careta masks are created as a part of carnival in Puerto Rico, right? JK: Many of the masks, like the famous horned mask called the Vejigante are typically used in street festivals and dance. The masks in this series take direct inspiration from that contemporary practice as well as remnants of Taino masks and surviving petroglyphs of the Cemi, or ancestor spirits.
Joseph Kattou BFA Sculpture, Alumnx 2019