The issue of identity in the visual arts emerged in a new light, with the shift away from formal modernism to a postmodernist paradigm, in the later decades of the 20th century. However, when we speak of identity, what do we mean? How does cultural identity contribute to the development of personal/private identity and vice-versa? How might this be reflected in an artist’s work in this post-postmodern era? Identity is, in part, defined as the condition of being oneself, and not another. But for an individual marginally positioned in a culture—for an individual defined as ‘other’—identity is often fragmented or fractured. The very notion of ‘other’ defies or contradicts the idea of identity. The sense of self becomes elusive – a slippery and mutating state of being. Personal identity shifts and transforms in response to the shifting environment, and a lingering hyper-vigilance mediates self-definition. These are underlying concerns in the current exhibition, Queloides/Keloids: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art, at Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory—Museum of Contemporary Art. ARTES fine arts magazine   

In 2004, the Mattress Factory (MF), Pittsburgh, PA, staged CUBA: Artists in Residence, a timely exhibition that included a range of new installations by eleven artists living in Cuba. Because of restrictions imposed by the Bush administration, the artists including René Francisco, Glenda León, Sandra Ramos and José Toirac were denied visas to come to the USA and so were unable to travel to Pittsburgh to be in residence and construct their art. Fortunately, the artists’ new installations became actualized because of the MF staff, who carefully worked from diagrams and instructions, sent over the Internet.  

The Mattress Factory has again brought contemporary work by Cuban artists to Pittsburgh. However, today the political atmosphere is unlike 2004, despite continual restrictions and political policy. The current exhibition Queloides/Keloids, III is co-curated by Alejandro de la Fuente, UCIS Research Professor of History and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Cuban artist, Elio Rodríguez Valdés. The artists in this show work explore the intersections of race, gender, nationalism, and globalization. This current exhibition represents the third venture of the Keloids project, taking up issues originally staged in 1997 and 1999—issues like self-representation, sexual power, history, space and the depletion of Western models. Alexis Esquivel and Omar Pascual Castillo organized the first Keloids exhibition (Africa House, 1997) and then again, the late writer and critic Ariel Ribeaux Diago, who curated the second Keloids, revisiting the issues for the Development Center of Visual Arts in Havana (1999). Although Professor de la Fuente was not part of either, ‘Queloides I’ or ‘Queloides II’, he firmly believed that another adaptation of the show was possible and significantly important to organize. He said Fidel Castro initiated several social programs to equalize racial opportunities in the 1960s. Within a short time, these programs were considered so successful that the government alleged that the problem of racism was solved. Henceforth, an official silence prevailed; this taboo subject remaining under the radar in Cuban culture until the 1990s, when the socialist welfare state began to unravel. Since the 1990’s, Cuban artists, writers and theorists have increasingly questioned the silence and apathy surrounding this issue and began to push back against the official position on the current state of racial affairs.  

 The subject of racism is a politically-sensitive one for Cuban authorities. Conversely, though, over the past decade, the counter-cultural movement among artists and intellectuals, across all disciplines, has persisted, in the hope of shedding light on the issue and dismantling damaging prejudice. According to curators, Queloides (a Spanish word that translates into ‘keloids’), is a medical term for pathological scars that develop in the site of a skin injury, produced by surgical incisions or traumatic wounds. Cubans believe that black skin is particularly susceptible to this raised scar. Professor de la Fuente sees, “Queloides as a metaphor for a generation that grew up in a totalitarian state, witnessing how that society collapsed in front of their eyes. Through their work, they are giving voice to the deteriorating racial situation in Cuba.” The latest exhibition of ‘Queloides’ speaks to this effort.  

The current MF exhibition represents the second installation of the ‘Queloides’ III exposition. It originally premiered at the Centro Wifredo Lam in Havana in the spring of 2010. The artists’ work, now brought together in the U.S., represents the latest creative exploration of racism in Cuba, as well as referencing Professor de la Fuente cultural research on the topic. The curators acknowledge the importance of having the exhibition begin in Cuba, because that is where the problem of racism, addressed in the show, originates. It includes a range of paintings, photographs, installations, sculpture and videos by twelve artists: Pedro Álvarez; Manuel Arenas; Belkis Ayón; María Magdalena Campos-Pons; Juan Roberto Diago; Alexis Esquivel; Armando Marino; Marta María Pérez; René Peña; Douglas Pérez; Elio Rodríguez and José A. Toirac. These artists came of age, professionally, in the early 1990s—times marked as post-revolutionary Cuba and witnessing the rise of racism, as well as prostitution. Notorious for their unfavorable stance on themes of social inequity, their most recent work explores the topic of a new wave of racial discrimination toward Afro-Cubans in an evolving socialist society.  

 It is important to note that many of the artists in the 2010 Keloids exhibit now live outside Cuba, temporarily or permanently. They have had new life experiences and their work is increasingly informed by broader global views about art and racial issues affecting people on the island of Cuba. Living elsewhere can often provide a fresh perspective, shaped by time and distance, allowing for a new approach to an emotionally-charged topic.  

 Artist, Manuel Arenas, now living in France and Spain, sees race from a broader perspective. In his conceptual installation Artificial Breathing, a white cubical room is outlined along its corners with what appears to be fine black hair. In this stark minimal setting several common everyday objects are juxtaposed both on the walls and floor, including: a shining dog dish with the words NIGRETO; bold text presents the message, ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’; a tiny button from which dangles delicate black hair and a photograph of the back of a man with two burnt iron outlines on his white shirt. It is the additive value of these subtle, disparate symbols that convey Arenas’s urgent message about social inequity in his homeland.  

Another expatriate, living in Boston, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, makes art about identity and memory, echoing the lives of all black people whose lives are rooted in Cuba. Cinder blocks and bricks have become a staple ingredient in new construction currently ongoing in Cuba, because other building materials are in short supply. Her compelling new installation ‘Guardarraya’, is a construction comprised of stacked bricks, sugar and two video projections, positioned strategically in a dark gallery. One traverses a narrow path, framed by two unfinished brick walls, leading the viewer to a video on the floor and another on the wall. The interacting between a white and black woman form its narrative. The essence of Campos-Cons subtle piece explores the connection between autobiography and culture, through installation, photographs and video—yet this work leaves the viewer wanting and needing more information.  

 Armando Mariño colorful and powerful Neo-Surrealistic paintings depict scenes following violent acts, generated both by nature and mankind. Even though his expressionist works are visually compelling, it is his inscrutable installation, ‘The Raft’, which invites scrutiny and commands attention, dramatically setting the tone for those entering the show. A shiny deep blue and yellow, wheel-less body of a 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe, supported from below by a profusion of black male, naked legs, appearing to be ‘on-the-march’, targets the topic of race. Situated on the pavement of the parking lot adjacent to the main MF building, this sculpture is absurd and funny, functioning as a poignant reminder of the chronic shortages and economic hardship plaguing Cuba for years.  

 The raw space of the MF’s basement is appropriate for Toirac and Meira Marrero’s shrine-like installation, Ave Maria (2010) on which they explore connections between Afro-Cuban and Catholicism, not from the traditional ethnographic but from the socio-political. The installation displays a series of statues of Our Lady of Caridad Del Cobre, [Patroness of Cuba] arranged along a long wooden plank that rests on a blue carpet. The darkness of the space and the raw brick walls frame this piece and enhance its grotto-like setting. While the presence the Virgin Mary in largely-Catholic, Latin cultures is notorious, in this show it remains enigmatic—leaving one to wonder, how and why these religious symbols connect to racism in Cuba?  

In the 1414 Building, Roberto Diago’s 2009 installation ‘Ascending City’ (wooden objects, textiles and rubber), fills the entrance gallery of the space, confronting the visitor with heaped forms and the pungent aroma of charred wood. Here, one is not witness to a vertical city of powerful skyscrapers, as its title might imply, but instead, we see the essence of a type of Favela—an 18th century shantytown in Brazil— bairros africanos (African neighborhoods). These were the places where former slaves, with no land ownership and no options for work, lived. Diego’s array of burnt wooden boxes is piled high in a corner, invading the space in a weird and fantastically disordered manner. The pervading sensibility of degradation and precariousness in this piece hints at the overcrowding conditions currently experienced by a large percentage of black Cubans.  

 Another compelling piece in this location is Elio Rodriguez’s ‘Black Ceiba’ (2010) a dramatic sculptural work consisting of an inflatable, soft sculpture, where velvet, vinyl and ceramic oozes out of the third floor windows of the building, onto its exterior walls and roof. The installation, resembling the limbs of a plant re-contextualizes itself into a type of sacred tree, bursting out of its restricted realm. What is hidden inside becomes public. Rodriguez himself states that he use humor and clichés, rooted in Caribbean popular culture, to expose truths.  

Without a doubt Queloides/Keloids seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate about the persistence of racism in Cuba and it contains some excellent work. Unfortunately its curators fail to provide viewers with significant contextual information about life in Cuba and racism beyond its social/political theme. Museums and curators need to remember that observers explore exhibitions at their own pace and view things on their terms. An exhibition must have compelling reasons to engage the viewer beyond sweeping subject matter. If one cannot read the symbols and icons presented by the artists, then a viewer can become lost and not fully engaged with the art presented. Unfamiliar subjects and settings, invite visitors to revert to their own familiar cultural perspective to gain insights, resulting in misinterpretation or lack of comprehension. I am not a believer of long winded-academic prose. Nevertheless, curators and writers of labels have to consider that visitors require accessible and concise facts. This is especially critical when presenting the art and ideas from another culture, with which we are not very familiar. Regarding the Queloides/Keloids exhibition most viewers have never been to Cuban or experienced this socialist culture. What we do know about Cuba has been mediated through television and newspapers—if we are to come away with new insights from such a serious exhibition, therefore more than artists’ names, dates and medium are required!  

By Elaine A. King, Ph.D. Contributing Writer  

Dr. King is Professor, History of Art, Theory & Museum Studies, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She is a critic and frequent guest curator, traveling widely and writing a on a variety of topics related to fine art for ARTES and other publications.  

Queloides/Keloids: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art  

Mattress Factory Art Museum, Pittsburgh, PA  

October 2010 – February 27, 2011  

Visit the Mattress Factory Art Museum at: www.mattress.org