Island , 2024

“Island” Installation Location: @__tunnel studios @__toucheboutique space (storefront inside an old Little Havana mall in Miami)
Duration: January 2024 The installation encompasses a poem my grandma used to recite to me before bed when visiting my mother’s native island, Tenerife (Canary Islands) each summer. This work includes a malachite stone, a feather, a flower, a pearl …all elements mentioned in the poem. It also has black sand referencing the volcanic sand on the island, and a painted photograph of my grandmother Margarita taken on her wedding day. The book “Island” by Aldous Huxley, which tells the story of a man who shipwrecks on an island and discovers that the community there has built a utopia is also at the storefront. My heritage, culture, the island as an archetype, and storytelling crossing the line between magic and realism are my references for this piece. The poem is called “A Margarita Debayle” by Rubén Darío . “Éste era un rey que tenía un palacio de diamantes, una tienda hecha del día y un rebaño de elefantes. Un quiosco de malaquita, un gran manto de tisú, y una gentil princesita, tan bonita, Margarita, tal bonita como tú. Una tarde la princesa vio una estrella aparecer; la princesa era traviesa y la quiso ir a coger. La quería para hacerla decorar un prendedor, con un verso y una perla, una pluma y una flor. A princesas primorosas se parecen mucho a ti cortan lirios, cortan rosas, cortan astros. Son así. Pues se fue la niña bella, bajo el cielo y sobre El mar, a cortar la blanca estrella que la hacía suspirar …”