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“Life is very sad now,” Yamary says. “But I’m not leaving. I’m staying right here.” That spirit of resilience is helping Puerto Rico rebuild from the massive destruction left in the storm’s path…. It’s going to take more than determination by the island’s residents to fully recover, if that’s even possible.” “Still, Marqués is guardedly optimistic. “We saw a lot of resiliency. We’re not going anywhere. We’re rebuilding,” he says. “We’ll be OK. But we shouldn’t try to get back to normal, because things will never be normal again.”” (Guzy)

 

Rican-struction Is a commentary on the Trump Administration’s insulting response to the devastation of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. This installation is a reaction to the infamous moment when Trump threw paper towels into to a crowd awaiting aid. The insulting video of the event circulated through the international news and caused considerable outrage until some new tweet or additional foolish action pulled attention away and threw the crisis in Puerto Rico and the horrid response to the side. Almost immediately the media moved on, with Puerto Rico being mentioned less and less. Even though the news coverage has faded, the wounds for any Puerto Rican are still very much open. It was clear to me that the relief effort was purposely inept, this coupled with the anger I felt when I saw the paper towel video and my knowledge of the long history of colonial abuses has prompted me to create  a direct and critical artwork in the spirit of other politically motivated artists like Papo Colo, Ai Weiwei and Adál Maldonado. In this essay I will examine the intended message of this work by scrutinizing its symbolic and formal components.  I will consider the ways that these meanings are compounded when they are combined, and I will discuss the artists who influenced some of these choices.  In particular I will consider the use of the news clip, the  paper towels, the symbolic tower, gold leaf, the debris, and the flag.

On a more personal note, I want to acknowledge that my passion for this subject, and the deep research that I’ve done, can all be tied back to my family.  I love my family and respect their history with the island.  This has been at the forefront of my mind with every work I produce. As the island recovers, I aim to shed light on this recent injustice.  I also want to acknowledge the overwhelming frustration that I feel about the injustices that Puerto Rico endures.  Rican-struction has been a focusing element in my life and a challenge just the same. I have had to contend with the idea that in such a complex, delicate and ever changing scenario I can never have a good or complete answer for how to fix the problem. All that I am able to do is present the reality of the situation as I see it. I am choosing to acknowledge the frustration of being abused, forgotten and living in the product of a colonial mess.  This is the emotional response I work to elicit from viewers that can relate and hopefully the individuals who can not relate, can empathize. 

 

 

 The video itself functions as the most overt reference to Trump and the most important starting point for the works analysis. While his silhouette is universally known, I have taken care to select a video that does not show his face. His back turned to you as he throws paper towels into a crowd does several things in relation to the work. It contextualizes the content of the sculpture itself but also poses some questions to the audience. I want the audience to consider if he is throwing rolls away from the sculpture, then how genuine is the already clearly hollow gesture, the faded nature of the projection also lends to the lack of sincerity  I also want the audience to question themselves, from the perspective of the viewer, they see the sculpture which is a depiction of a reality and find themselves on the same side as Trump looking down on a crowd of Puerto Ricans. When someone passes in front of the projection I want the audience to contemplate their place in the work and crisis as much as the governments. 

When looking at the possible choices for their material dialogues I chose the paper towel and the gold for their multifaceted meaning in the context of contemporary and historical Puerto Rico. Upon first glance the paper towels are humorous, their quilted pattern highlighted by the gold leaf, immediately one conjures the gilded ceilings of stripped of their use and made purely decorative by a gaudy amount of gold leaf. I have reconfigured the paper towels into golden relics in order to reflect a more honest American impulse, exploitative development on the cheap. The paper towels are a symbol of the botched relief efforts and of the treatment of Puerto Rico. Often times the island is seen as a disposable resource only worth a singular purpose, much like paper towels. The island is used and abused for one time tax loopholes or vacation trends, and once its served this purpose, it is tossed by the wayside. 

 

 As a more literal symbol, the paper towel is the object thrown in the infamous video, it is what Trump and his party think the island and its people are worth. A roll worth $0.49 distributed to a room of around 100 people are all it seems to take to herald a job well done on an island of 3 million. The rolls act as a metaphoric parallel to Puerto Rico’s situation as well. In the eyes of many people it seems Puerto Rico is like a roll of paper towels, cheap, convenient, and disposable after it gets too wet. The rolls help highlight the injustice brought against them through the lens of the irreverent symbol of  golden paper towels. The work utilizes monumental scale to convey the magnitude of the situation and implicate the viewer in what role they play in the allowing the island to struggle under the weight of false promises and such a ridiculous magnitude of essentially useless objects. There is a certain futility or frustration involved in the process, the gold flakes, the paper towels absorb the adhesive. I see this frustration as part of my process, a necessary parallel to the frustration of the situation I am representing. 

Gold is another important symbol within the work for several reasons. Again the idea of the colonizing force that ravaged Latin America for its resources like gold has been brought up by several audience members and was an intentional association. The original motivation for colonizing Puerto Rico stemmed entirely from resource extraction and the exploitation of the native people as a labor force to produce desired products like sugarcane, a practice that still goes on today within an exploitative land development and tourist market. Within the contemporary reference I intended the false opulence that gold leaf carries is immediately discernible as a direct reference to Trump. His false gold tower in Las Vegas is immediately conjured in the minds of the audience and this is a clearly welcome association. His penchant for fake gold and tall towers become a perfect symbol to use in a satirical fashion because what comes after this initial spectacle of a golden tower looming over you is the realization of the details. The gold is flaking off in an overtly cheap fashion, and upon more than a moment's consideration you see in full detail that the lurching tower above you is made of less than structurally sound. 

Along with the massive tower and projection, the audience may also gain their context via the base of the sculpture. The tower sits on a shipping pallet which references the poor quality of aid that actually made it to the people after Maria. The supplies air dropped in to the island among the debris were practically useless, like snacks and drinks, which make appearances among the rubble. This is also in reference to the gigantic stacks of water bottles left abandoned on the island, intentionally not distributed via FEMA and other government run agencies, claiming ownership and leaving them outside to be contaminated before allowing outsiders to have access to the supply. (Robles)The rubble itself is an obvious reference to the state of the island after the hurricane, but it also has been made to serve another purpose. That purpose would be to obscure the image on the base. The base, in the shape of Puerto Rico is painted with the flag of the island, one of, if not the important visual symbols for the people of Puerto Rico. This flag may be obscured, but it is not gone. It persists despite the circumstance, which I intend to represent the resiliency of the Puerto Rican people despite the dangerously poor aid response. I hope the more optimistic among the audience, upon deeper consideration, would be able to read more hope into the tower and base than the debris clearly indicates. Hopefully they may view it as a symbol of resilience or resistance, an unwillingness to give in and an ability to build up from the harsh circumstance that is represented in the base and for the people to bear the weight coming down on them without bending. 

As important as the material significances are my influences. As an artist in the age of internet, I am able to curate and pull a wider set of work and artists than I would ever know otherwise. Papo Colo is a major influence. When thinking in terms of Puerto Rican artists, it is impossible to not mention this prolific performance artist. His work is bold and disruptive, it makes no apology for disturbing a traditionally non inclusive space, including the public space. His work strives to educate the people of the United States of their biases by presenting the struggle of Puerto Rican Americans. Colo was already active as an artist in New York City during the Reagan administration where he saw how the conservative trickle down tax policies disproportionately disadvantaged and impacted Puerto Ricans. In direct response to the laws Colo performed Against the Current where he forced a boat up the east river in New York City, through strong currents and various garbage. He saw the current and the pollutants as a metaphor for the social injustices and extra challenges that Puerto Ricans have to contend with in the mainland. Thanks to this work,  I was emboldened to make a largely disruptive political installation that would disrupt the gallery space and make use of metaphoric symbols. I was inspired by Colo to  make a work that would take over the gallery. I’ve learned the power of disruption from Papo Colo. 

Another major direct inspiration for my thesis would be Ai Weiwei. The work he has done as a political dissident in China while also using his work to call public attention to those in need has been informing the way I make work. His project about refugees, in particular, is most related to the direction of my own work. Weiwei’s work Laundromat, made from the clothing gathered from a refugee camp in the Greek village of Idomeni, represents the empathy and the monumental scale that I am looking to explore in my own work. The repetition in Weiwei’s work and in my own prior experimentation had led me to the idea of utilizing a repeated form or motif to create a theme or association. I had initially hoped that in repetition I could flesh out the magnitude of the number of victims and represent each fallen individual as a single object. This lead me to the idea of the gilded paper towels as a symbol of both the implied ‘value’ of the victims and the botched relief efforts as well this tower, when distributed in their full actual amount they would number approximately 3,000 the same number of estimated victims from the hurricane’s aftermath. Though this idea evolved past the association with victimhood and the representation of victims in effigy and to that of resilience, the association to the origin of paper towels and gold as symbols remain.

 

           In terms of artist inspirations that influenced my ethos, Adál Maldonado and his ongoing series Puerto Ricans Underwater and his work in general has been a valuable influence and at times a reaffirmation that my own work has relevance. I believe many Puerto Ricans have a very complex sense of identity and in this there is a certain fluidity that is difficult and nuanced to capture. His work frames him as “a cultural provocateur, who has focused on issues of identity throughout his broad career.” This is very interesting to me as an artist and as a “New Yorican” (a common slang in the latinx community for Puerto Ricans born in New York)  because there are so few voices speaking in the Puerto Rican art community outside of the island, he has had a great impact on the type of work and subjects I deal with, as my views of identity align closely with his own. Maldonado and myself believe “identity is not always a simple matter…. identity is fluid and has changed to circumstances. But at its core (it) has always been the Puerto Rican culture which is itself a blend of Spanish, African and indigenous Taino influences, among others.” (Estrin)  I use the Puerto Rican identity and the pride of that identity as both a theme and a motivation in my body of work and in my thesis.

This is often the Hardest part of my work, there is such nuances in the identity and there is always a danger of slipping towards a messiah complex. I do not think my work holds all the answers nor do I think I could speak for everyone. Often times political work falls into a trap where the artist believes they have all the answers. I hope that my work will help to educate and enact change from an individual level after making people more aware.  After Maria, the government used the damaged infrastructure as part of a public excuse to counter the proof that the aid was being focused in Texas and Florida. As national geographic remarks, “With no power, running water was cut off for much of the population. Communications to and from Puerto Rico were nearly impossible for days…. and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, charged with disaster relief, was already stretched thin after historic storms earlier last summer in Texas and Florida.” (geo) The effects of the intentional mismanagement have long term damages in ways many people did not expect. Forcing those living in impoverished areas to exist without the necessary resources and in the debris of their lifelong homes took a mental toll. 

“Even after power and water are restored across the island, people will still be dealing with the storm’s effects. “The storm takes away the foundations of society. Everything you thought gave you certainty is gone,” says psychologist Domingo Marqués, 39, an associate professor at Albizu University in San Juan. “You see people anxious, depressed, scared.” Marqués estimates that 30 to 50 percent of the population is experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or anxiety.”(Guzy)

I am not looking to solve these problems through one sculpture. I am certain my work would solve none of them. However I feel as if I am obligated to use my loudest voice to speak out whenever possible. Still, I know I do not represent the whole of the island, as someone who grew up in New York and has the privilege of not being present for such disasters, I know my work could seem disingenuous, but I have lived my own version of a Puerto Rican experience and I take this into account before I make anything. Knowing that, at best I hope that my work is representing a common feeling, despite the works political message, whoever they blame, I hope Rican-struction is able to rally people around the idea that the way Puerto Rico has been treated post disaster is not acceptable. The takeaway for my work I believe is best represented by the words of those who I am seeking to represent, as in the end, this project is not about me.   It is for my grandparents who shower in buckets.(Kattou) It is for my cousins who fled to the mainland so they would not  be condemned to live in ruins, It is for the people who made me who I am and the culture that lives in my blood, and they deserve some sense of justice. 

 

 

Bibliography

Estrin, James. “Puerto Rican Identity, In and Out of Focus.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Aug. 2012, lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/an-artists-search-fo-puerto-rican-identity/.

Guzy, Carol. “Months After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico Still Struggling.” National Geographic, 20 Mar. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/03/puerto-rico-after-hurricane-maria-dispatches/.

Kattou, Joseph D, et al. “Experience from Survivors: Interview of Luz Colon and Hector Lebron.” 10 Nov. 2018.

Klein, Betsy. “Despite Massive Death Toll, Trump Says PR Response 'an Incredible, Unsung Success'.” CNN, Cable News Network, 12 Sept. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/09/11/politics/donald-trump-fema-hurricanes/index.html.

News, Global. YouTube, YouTube, 3 Oct. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcTXqouiM4U&list=PL7JMNYnNa-0xQUFb5l97TrCUCWTJaQIlB&index=2&t=0s.

Oliver, John. YouTube, YouTube, 24 Apr. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt-mpuR_QHQ.

Robles, Frances. “Containers of Hurricane Donations Found Rotting in Puerto Rico Parking Lot.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Aug. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/us/puerto-rico-aid.html.

Robles, Frances. “Trump Calls Storm Response in Puerto Rico, Where 3,000 Died, 'One of the Best'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/us/trump-puerto-rico-maria-response.html.

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