canta que estoy llorando [sing that I am crying], 2019
Carlotta K. Petrina Cultural Center was once a building for commercial trade built by the Cross family, a biracial marriage that found Brownsville, TX a safe haven for its cultural and racial diversity. Later, the artist Carlotta K. Petrina made the space her home to continue her art practice. After her passing, it was her will to establish her home as an arts center.
I connected to the place through a young artist singing Puño de Tierra, a song about transversing, belonging and death. The song was an action of singing in spite of tragedy. In Mexican culture, personal and social conflicts are confronted with a dichotomous choice: to sing or cry, o cantas o lorras. Both, an active state of coping with lived experiences seemed to culturally negate each other. As a response, I gathered natural materials and newspaper clippings to form through models of tears, stomach knots, skins and at the scale of hearts and I placed the work inside rooms used to teach children songs and dance. At the center of a room, I placed two opposing geometrical forms as means to find opposites together in one space.
I connected to the place through a young artist singing Puño de Tierra, a song about transversing, belonging and death. The song was an action of singing in spite of tragedy. In Mexican culture, personal and social conflicts are confronted with a dichotomous choice: to sing or cry, o cantas o lorras. Both, an active state of coping with lived experiences seemed to culturally negate each other. As a response, I gathered natural materials and newspaper clippings to form through models of tears, stomach knots, skins and at the scale of hearts and I placed the work inside rooms used to teach children songs and dance. At the center of a room, I placed two opposing geometrical forms as means to find opposites together in one space.
