To be, or not be......but how?

On one occasion or other we may have asked ourselves: who am I and, in my uniqueness, where, do I belong?  We may have even asked: what “slings and arrows of misfortune” can I endure to “belong” and yet remain whole?  In a nation of immigrants, these questions have practical as well as transcendent value.  Arguably, history has shown us a complex and fluid reality of who we are as individuals and as a collective. 

Not for the first time, America finds itself in politicized heated conversations about immigration.  Issues of national identity, shared values and consensus building have again become polarized by differing perceptions of self-interest. 

Across the American mosaic, many artists have responded by modeling the kind of imagination and creativity required for examining societal assumptions and political disconnects.  They do so as they attempt to bridge cultural differences and synthesize new realities of what it could mean to be human and truly “American”.   Not unlike other recent immigrants and ethnic minorities in the US, this exhibit will reveal provocative variations of the Latino immigrant journey.   Latinos from the Americas might even argue that they have been American all along…..Latin Americans.

The seven artist’s in En Foco's  New Works Photography Awards exhibition show us a multiplicity of themes and techniques that touch on various aspects of race, class, ethnic and gender identity.  Exhibition Juror and Editor in Chief of Aperture, Melissa Harris, noted that a common thread was the use of personal history often intertwined with the concept of identity in a pluralistic society.   

Adriana Katzew, explores Mexican identity on both sides of the border in “Y se repite“ (And it Repeats Itself), a project that blurs the past and present.   She does so by playing with the themes of time, memory and history. She succeeds in creating images that reflect a continuum between past and present, between memory and reality.

Through the medium of photography she attempts to unravel her cultural past while unveiling her emerging Mexican-American immigrant identity.  In doing so, she captures a process of becoming as it reveals itself in the multiple identities that come into play, the occasional sense of isolation and her sense of familia and community."

On the other hand, Kesha Bruce’s mixed media digital project, “(Re)calling and (Re)telling“ conceptualizes cultural and ethnic identities and histories.  This work combines painting and photography to explore memory, history, and mythological tales.  

She notes that her works lie at the cross roads of “American Negro folklore, childlike sentimentality, and magical-spiritual belief” and examines the historical and metaphysical aspects of storytelling as they relate to the modern African Diaspora.  Her images become a repository for memories and dreams that tell their own truth while simultaneously allowing the viewer to bring their own experience to the images. 

The third winner, Donald Daedal us’  “If I Were Beautiful and Symmetrical Too“ looks at western cultural appropriation and issues of beauty, its derivatives such as authenticity and identity.  Since in reality most people are not symmetrical, this series investigates facial symmetry and how this attribute comes to be interpreted as beautiful or interesting.

In contrast, the tradition of wabi-sabi in Japanese aesthetic, the asymmetrical, imperfect, and incomplete constitute beauty.  As an Asian/American, Daedalus’ syncretic project, if I Were Beautiful and Symmetrical, Too, attempts to contrast and reconcile ideas of aesthetic beauty.

Esther Hidalgo’s series titled “Recuerdos Entre Las Sombras”, examines the tension of honoring one’s roots while in the process of assimilation to American society.  

Her use of family photographs, archival documents, and culturally charged imagery has constructed a personal narrative while preserving their contextually obscure nature.   Her works challenge the concept of cultural homogenization by postulating that cultural identity may not be negated or erased.  Her journey and artistic choices illustrate how her Cuban cultural roots have evolved and adapted.  

Myra Greene’s series titled “Character Recognition” examines her sense of racial identity by using her features and skin surface as a metaphor for processing the depth of conscious and unconscious feelings and impulses that give rise to her very being.  As a visual artist, her own encounters with public and personal bigotry forced her to ask what people see when they look at her.  She used history as a guide for linking ideas about photography, phrenology and physiognomy. 

This series of self-portraits uses a rare nineteenth century photographic imaging technology that employs a wet-glass plate collodion process that is sensitive to blue light rays. She found that the quality of these images seemed to transform her likeness into that of a woman who could have been classified, owned and sold in the mid 1800s.   This brutally honest series of images confront the features of race and racial stereotypes in history as they continue to assert themselves in contemporary society and politics. 

Wanda Acosta’s visual representations in “Starlette Van Dyke” offer a fascinating take on her vision of sexual identity.  As a queer Latina woman, she uses her personal experiences as a means to delve into the reality constructs that inform her American and Latino socio-political milieu.  

Ms. Acosta’s staged and emotionally charged digital photographs are leavened with multiple layers of meaning.  Her project centers on a fictional “Avatar” or identity constructed for the virtual terrains of “Second Life”, an internet-based role-playing virtual world.   Through the “Starlette Van Dyke” character, Acosta explores the changing modalities of selfhood and representations of identity.  She does so within the symbolic space of interrelationships between authorship and spectatorship.  She meditates on the questions of self, culture, as well as the recurring tensions and critical disjunctions between the two. 

 Less involved with the specifics of identity but based on ethnicity, Charlie Grosso explores how we live our lives, issues of memory and childhood with respect to how they influence later development.  In her series “Wok the Dog“, she examines the commerce of meat markets in Taiwan.  Given that these markets were the  source of some early childhood fears, she examines the relationship of the livelihood of these vendors to the food source that supports them – the animals who must die for them to survive financially

Without question, the artists featured in En Foco's New Works #11  have succeeded in mirroring important aspects of acculturation and assimilation.  They not only press the envelope of art photography concepts and process, they also break through the language of  “polite” politically-correct discourse on being human and Americans of color.   

They subvert the underlying assumptions and expectations of loyalty toward cultural and national identifications.  Beyond this, they explore American disconnects, ambiguities, contradictions and tensions between national cultural expectations and the painful and isolating reality of becoming a member of a pluralistic cultural mélange.  Although this exhibit will clearly be of interest to the general public, Latinos will find much to enjoy and learn from these artists. 

The Exhibition dates are  May 23 – July 5, 2008 and a meet the artists reception will be held on  Friday, May 30th. 6:00-9:00pm.  An Artist Talk will take place Saturday, May 31, 1:00-3:00pm with Kesha Bruce, Adriana Katzew and Donald Daedalus.

Location:
El Taller Boricua Galleries
The Julia De Burgos Cultural Center
1680 Lexington Avenue @ 106th Street
New York, NY 10029
Tel: 212.831.4333

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12-6pm; Thursday 1-7pm

Directions: #6 train to 103rd Street, walk North on Lexington

All events are free and open to the public. 

En Foco's New Works Photography Awards is an annual program selecting three to seven U.S. based photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American, or Pacific Islander heritage through an open call for submissions. Acting as a creative incubator, it enables artists to create or complete an in-depth photographic series exploring themes of their choice, while providing an honoraria and infrastructure for a professional exhibition in New York. New Works is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Additional support comes from the Bronx Council on the Arts, Bogen, Lowepro, Print File, Fuji and Modernage.