Amber Robles-Gordon

Place of Breath and Birth

Series, Collage on Canvas, 2020

Place of Breath and Birth

Background:

In 2019, I was presented the opportunity to have a solo exhibition at Galeria de Arte, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Santurce, Puerto Rico. I decided to title the series Place of Breath and Birth. The intention of this exhibition is to empower my five-year-old self. To give her the strength to fight for herself, her language and culture. I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Arlington, Virginia. My first language was Spanish, yet at about five years old, I came home one day and told my mother:  “I was not speaking Spanish anymore”. From then on, I responded to my Spanish/English speaking mother in English only.  Later, I came to understand that I had surrendered my Spanish tongue—a critical part of my cultural identity— so that I could “fit” a version of myself that could possibly coincide with the prescribed box that others had for a brown-skinned girl such as myself.  Although in time, the name calling ceased, however, the microaggressions, insensitive questions, assumptions, and judgments about my brownness lingered. Throughout this life, time-after-time, I have had to choose to identify with my brownness/blackness over the other cultural ties that bind other Spanish speaking people with their culture.

My Caribbean family—with roots in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Antigua— has long been impacted and splintered, by the search or pursuit of education, better income, and greener pastures. As with all achievements, there are gains and losses. The fruit includes a well-educated family with greater exposure to the world and economic and social opportunities. Yet, the primary sacrifice is our distance from the thickened knotted roots of Caribbean Black and Latino heritage and culture that living at home might have provided. 

Visiting Puerto Rico:

In preparation for this exhibit, my mother and I spent two weeks in September 2019 Puerto Rico. My mother was returning to her childhood home and I was visiting for the first time as an adult. Since then, I have returned to PR to give an artist talk as part of Sagrado de Corazon’s visiting art program and to live in PR for extended period to produce the artwork for this exhibition.  Due to the impact of continuing earthquakes in Puerto Rico from 2019 unward and the COVID 19 epidemic, the format and focus of this artwork has shifted.

On July 10, 2020, the Galeria de Arte, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón will feature, Place of Breath and Birth online at https://www.sagrado.edu/visitingartist/.

Additionally, please check out the interview with myself and Norma Vila, Directora de la Galería de Sagrado at https://insagrado.sagrado.edu/de-la-galeria-de-sagrado/ for additional details about the residency and my experiences in Puerto Rico.

The Artwork:

My artwork is about my personal narrative and the intersections of womanhood, patriarchy, hybridism, and Americanism. My intention is to further contextualize my narrative and artwork within the political, socioeconomic, and environmental threads that define and are often in my opinion used to control, alienate and or mistreat Puerto Ricans in general and Afro-Puerto Ricans in particular.  This series includes ten (10) mix-media collages. Each collage measures 18 X 24 inches and is made of acrylic paint, magazine paper, permanent ink line drawings, fabric, and other mixed media items.

1. Botánica del Amor, Autorreflexión y Espiritualidad (Botany of Love, Self-reflection and Spirituality), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

2. La Isla del Encanto (The Island of Enchantment), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 20203. Tendedero, Comunidad y Energía Eterna (Clothesline, Community and Eternal Energy), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

4. Elemental: Tierra, Aire, Agua, Fuego (Elemental: Earth, Air, Water, Fire) 18 x 24, 2020, mixed media collage, mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 20205. Observación de influyentes: cultura y herencia Taina, el clima y el machismo (Observation of Influensers: Taino culture and heritage, the climate and machismo), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

6. El altar eterno de las mujeres abandonadas y las almas renunciadas. Sin embargo, la elección siempre debe ser de ella (eternal altar for the women forsaken and souls relinquished. Yet the choice must always remain hers.), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

7. y mi bandera vuela mas alto que la tuya (my flag flies higher than yours), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

8. Reflexiones sobre el yo, la virgen maría y el colonialismo (Reflections of Self, the Virgin Mary and colonialism),mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

9. Reclamonado, quien soy (Reclaiming who I am), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

10. Papa las bahías bioluminiscentes y las tortugas (For the bioluminescent bays and turtles), mixed media collage, 18 x 24 in. , 2020

A foundational symbology of this body of work is the Ficus Elastica commonly known as the Rubber Tree, rubber fig or rubber plant.  I was introduced to the Rubber Tree while in Puerto Rico on the grounds of the Universidad de Sagrado de Corazón (University of the Sacred Heart) campus. Among its extensive botanical collection of indigenous plants of Puerto Rico; I found a large banyan tree whose broad canopy sheltered smaller versions of itself growing at its feet. This tree appeared to be a literal fusion of past, present and future state of creation or sustaining an ecosystem.  In La Isla del Encanto (pictured below) and throughout this series are abstracted representations of the rubber tree– an entanglement of strong roots – as an example of its resiliency this tree most recently stood-fast to its native soil while 155 mph winds that battered the campus. 

The second most important symbolic layer of this work are the depictions and interpretations of the transitions of day to night and night to day. I intentionally chose a studio and apartment on the third floor in Puerto Nuevo with three-dimensional exposure to light.  I then surrounded myself with plants to create an internal garden, a reflection of the thousands of “porch gardens” featured throughout PR neighborhoods. From this perch, I could see the changing environment as the light increased or waned and how the varying aspects of weather altered each day. Depending on where I stood, and the time of day,  I had a virtual window into the varying socio-economics aspects of diversity of the island. The combination of the verdant and vibrant nature of the island landscape, my internal garden and the third floor weather allowed for the feeling of creating a lush atmospheric environment.

As I progressed through researching, photographing, living and ultimately creating after the beginning of COVID 19 quarantine the cylinder abstracted rubber tree forms expanded to circular ecospheres to convey a spiritual and ethereal connections to and within my immediate environment.   Throughout some of the artworks I am a figure, a witness to the beauty and complexity of the Puerto Rican landscape – tropical jungle, 1,000 of miles of carreteras, the co-mingling and isolation of three major ethnic/racial groups – Taino, the Spanish and Africans, the stranglehold of the United States and the impact of the Caribbean Sea, with its threat of hurricanes, scorching summer heat and lush landscape.  

Ultimately, I hope this narrative and artwork gives voice to others who walk in brownness—who breathe within a female form, and or—- who do not quite fit the norms...yet are Bold and Proud.

Exhibition Updates:

-In October 2020, TAFETA Gallery will be presenting the Place of Breath and Birth series at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London, alongside their new digital initiative 1-54 Online, Powered by Christie’s.

To view the exhibition: https://www.artsy.net/show/tafeta-gallery

-The Place of Breath and Birth series is currently on view as part of my solo exhibition, Successions: Traversing US Colonialism at American University Museum, curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah. For additional information about Successions: Traversing US Colonialism exhibition: https://www.american.edu/cas/museum/2021/successions.cfm

For further information about purchasing and or exhibiting artwork from the Place of Breath and Birth series contact amberroblesgordon@gmail.com.

Observación de influyentes: cultura y herencia Taina, el clima y el machismo (Observation of Influensers: Taino culture and heritage, the climate and machismo) 18 x 24 in, Mixed Media Collage on Canvas, 2020, SOLD

El altar eterno de las mujeres abandonadas y las almas renunciadas. Sin embargo, la elección siempre debe ser de Ella (The eternal altar for the women forsaken and souls relinquished. Yet the choice must alwaysremain hers) 18 x 24 in, Mixed Media Collage on Canvas, 2020, (Image on the right) SOLD

Reclamando quien soy, (Reclaiming who I am) 18 x 24 in., Mixed Media Collage on Canvas, 2020 (Image on the left)

Para las bahías bioluminiscentes y las tortugas (For bioluminescent bays and turtles) 18 x 24 in., Mixed Media Collage on Canvas, 2020, (Image on the right) SOLD