(Afro) Cuba's Art Convergence
Not too long ago, Code Z noted Obsidian Arts, Inc.'s Afro Cuba: Cognoscenti, which flashed the light on Cuba. Every once in a while, the stars will align and a veritable cornucopia of good ‘ish will burst open. Right about now is such a time. We've noted a convergence of three joints that further that Cuban dialogue.
Weighing in with seventy-plus artists, New York’s Exit Art has offered up Killing Time: An Exhibition of Cuban Artists from the 1980s to the Present (May 12-July 28). Curated by Elvis Fuentes, Yuneikys Villalonga, and Glexis Novoa, Killing Time provides myriad works in a variety of media that illustrate how the personal can be very political, and how the compression of time can be both debilitating and invigorating. In the curator’s own words," The Revolution has been a symbolic intervention on Cuban Time. In return, time has shaped discourses of and on the Cuban Revolution." Considering that these works span the period from the Carter administration to our Post 9-11/Guantanamo era, we’re sure that there’s plenty to feast on.
A part of the annual Urban Film Series held in D.C., Black Docs 2007 will roll out six documentaries beginning with writer and director J. Plunky Branch’s Under the Radar--A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music on June 28. Under the Radar, which apparently was created under the radar, serves as a reversed cultural Underground Railroad--taking viewers inside the belly of the beast to expose creative survival methods of indigenous Cuban music, its relationship to outside influences, and vice-versa. Under the Radar will be shown at Landmark Theatre in Washington D.C. A discussion with J. Plunky Branch precedes the screening.
Rounding out the trio is the Frost's installation of the five finalists for the 2007 Emelio Sánchez Award in the Visual Arts at FIU. Although writer and assemblage artist Gean Moreno took the $15,000 prize, all five finalists--including Alexandre Arrechea, María Martínez-Cañas, Wilfredo Prieto and Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova--are represented. All five artists are of Cuban lineage, and the current exhibition is heavy on installation work from the quintet, though it also includes photo-based work from Martínez-Cañas. The exhibition was curated by Cintas Fellows collection manager Ingrid LaFleur Rogers.
Every winter, the Cintas Foundation invites applications in the visual arts, including painting, sculpture, installation art, design, video art, photography and filmmaking from artists of Cuban descent. The award carries a $15,000 cash prize, which is used by the winner to further his or her creative development. Submissions for the 2008 fellowship are due 14 January 2008.
22 June 2007