ARTISTAS EN PERFIL: LA CERRA
by Jan Galligan & Lillian Mulero
Santa Olaya, PR
Some of the crowd at La Productora for the opening of the exhibition "o te peinas o te haces rolos"
Jangeando (hanging around) a large crowd gathered on Calle Cerra, Lillian and I are outside of #619, home to La Productora the newest addition to an energetic and expanding art scene here on the island. An even larger group is crowded into the gallery, filled with music and artworks by artists who have helped to ensure that Santurce continues to rule. We have been reflecting on the changes we have seen since moving to the island over two years ago. We have seen this community become a center for art activity and this street become the center of the neighborhood. Because of the noise of the crowd and blare of the music coming from the gallery, Lillian has to lean in close to make herself heard.
"This reminds me a lot of the art scene in the 1980's on the Lower East Side in New York City," she says. "Same kind of high energy and excitement, a feeling of a home-grown, do it yourself aesthetic; thumbing one's nose at the art establishment; art on the streets and in the galleries created and run by artists, for artists; artworks based on things happening at the moment and politically charged in response to issues of the day."
I know what she means. We were there and saw it as it happened. At the moment we are both reading about that New York artworld of the 1980s. Lillian is reading Alan Moore's new book ART GANGS, which recalls the protest and counterculture of the downtown art community, and I am reading Cynthia Carr's new biography FIRE IN THE BELLY, about the life and times of David Wojnarowicz, one of the artists who helped make the Lower East Side a vibrant and politically aware art scene. One thing that distinguished Loisaida, as it is still known to Nuyoricans, and sometimes called Alphabet City, is that it is an Hispanic neighborhood. During the 1980s there was a large influx of artists who came primarily for cheap rents and readily available work-spaces. They quickly established themselves, opening art galleries, cooperatives, and alternative art spaces which presented art exhibits, music, poetry and experimental theater. Most importantly these artists and their venues were supportive of the people and culture surrounding them. The artwork was quite distinctive, made from objects and images discovered on the Lower East Side, often reflecting icons and folk art of the Boricua community. In addition many important Puerto Rican and Nuyorican artists were welcomed and became instrumental in establishing that art scene. Some of them founded the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in a former public school building. There they presented theater, dance, music and art and rented out fifty studio spaces to community artists. It remains an important and vital cultural center today.
Our reverie is interrupted when Lillian spots Carla Acevedo-Yates, a young art writer and independent curator. We met Carla when she presented her project The Dialectic City at Laboratorio de Artes Binarios in 2011. At the moment she is completing graduate studies in the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in upstate New York. Lillian motions to Carla and she leans in to join our conversation. I ask if she can translate the title of this exhibition "o te peinas o te haces rolos" into English for me. "Literally, it means 'either comb your hair or put it up in rollers,'" she tells me. "But figuratively, it means make up your mind and do something." "Sort of like our saying, 'shit or get off the pot,'" I suggest. "Sort of," says Lillian, "but more like 'he who hesitates is lost.'" "O 'no es lo mismo decirlo que hacerlo,'" says Carla. "How about, 'if you're going to eat three frogs, eat the biggest one first,'" I suggest. They look puzzled. "I had a fortune cookie yesterday which said, '"There is no time like the pleasant.'" I tell them. They both stare, choosing to ignore me. Suddenly I am out manned and out gunned. It might be time for me to either start fishing, or get rid of the bait.
Carla points out that the text in support of this exhibition says that La Productora started from the need to have an alternative space where artists can create and share their art. The name comes from the location, 619 Calle Cerra, where 30 years ago there was a center for distributing typical music of Puerto Rico. Now it has been reinvented as a space for the distribution of creative ideas in art and design. She says the text also suggests that the artists in this show have a shared aesthetic based on a dichotomy in their work and a duality in their techniques, where the viewer can perceive a child-like feeling but at the same time find a mature perception. It also says these artists share an appreciation for the work exhibited in the Bad Painting show of 1978, the first exhibition at the New Museum in New York City. Curator Marsha Tucker wrote that the artists in that exhibition “expressed a freedom to mix classical and popular art-historical sources, kitsch and traditional images, archetypal and personal fantasies, which constitutes a rejection of the concept of progress,” and served as a thumb in the eye to the patriarchal phallocentric art establishment of that era. The New Museum was the first major contemporary art institution founded by a woman, and now has a long history of supporting the work of women and minority artists concerned with social and political issues.
Lillian asks, "Doesn't the title of this exhibition "o te peinas o te haces rolos" refer specifically to women?" Carla says, "Yes, but it's referring to a sense of indecisiveness, a trait unfortunately attributed to women." "But there are no women artists in this show," declares Lillian. "True," says Carla, "although this is the first exhibition of the gallery." "Give them some time," I suggest. "The gallery is new, and they are just getting started."
For the moment at least, they do not contradict me.
Artists Juan Alberto Negroni, Rabindranat Diaz-Cardona, Martin Albarran, Omar Obdulio Pena, Jaime Crespo and friend in front of LA CERRA, an artwork by Jesús “Bubu” Negrón
"o te peinas o te haces rolos"
Artists: Rabindranat Díaz-Cardona, Hector Madera, José Lerma, Roberto Márquez, Jesús “Bubu”Negrón, Juan Alberto Negroni, Radames “Juni” Figueroa, Fernando Pintado, Omar ObdulioPeña y Jonathan Torres. With the collaboration of Roberto Paradise / Martin Albarran
La Productora
Calle Cerra #619, Santurce
(787) 647-7461
http://www.facebook.com/laproductorapr
Carla Acevedo-Yates