MUSEO de ARTE de PUERTO RICO (MAPR)
From June 2019
Until death do us part - Hasta que la muerte nos separe, 1992-1994. Traveling installation
Memorial dedicated to the deaths of 100 femicide in Puerto Rico by their husbands, lovers or ex-spouses between 1990 to 1993.
Anaida Hernandez is a pioneer in domestic violence issues, one of the artists in the Americas in developing a work around the theme ... represented through the fragmented female body -
Emilia Quiñones Otal -Specialized critic
Journal of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, Third Series, pag. 167
History exhibition: traveled to 5 countries in North and Central America, Europe and the Caribbean; 7 cities, 9 museums and galleries in the world; 1 ton of weight. Currently part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico (MAPR), from may 2019 in exhibition MAPR.
Museo de Bellas Artes, Habana, Cuba; Ludwig Forum Museum, Aachen, Alemania; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico; Museo de Arte y Diseño, San José, Costa Rica; Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY; Hostos Art Gallery, CUNY, Bronx, NY; John Jay Art Hall Gallery, New York City; Capitolio de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Raices Art Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Curators: Susan Hoehzel, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY; Raina Lampkins - Filder, Hostos Community College Art Gallery, CUNY, Bronx, NY; Lliliam Llanes, V Bienal de la Habana, Museo de Bellas Artes, La Habana, Cuba; Museo Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Alemania; Vriginia Pérez - Ratton, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo de Costa Rica; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.
Description
Installation of 100 painting wooden box 14 x 14 inches each, overall 7 feet (tall) x 22 feet (long); black color wall 10 feet high x 50 feet long; on floor, wood panels black color background painted, 6 feet x 32 feet x 3 inches; 100 calligraphy names, acrylic painting of murdered women.
Installation of 100 painting wooden box 14 x 14 inches each, overall 7 feet (tall) x 22 feet (long); black color wall 10 feet high x 50 feet long; on floor, wood panels black color background painted, 6 feet x 32 feet x 3 inches; 100 calligraphy names, acrylic painting of murdered women.
Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, New York
Curator: Susan Hoehzel
 |
| Installation for Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, 2019 |
Link web page: Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, New York
Interview by Susan Hoehzel, curator and director Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, New York : http://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/gallery/Hernandez/intervff.htm
Details:
 |
| Montaje de la instalación en el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, desde mayo de 2019 |
Archives
ART; One Show Ponders a Cause and the Other Reviews a Heritage
Link New York Times ART; One Show Ponders a Cause and the Other Reviews a Heritage - New York Times
THE Lehman College Art Gallery is divided into neat halves, and for the current exhibition the separation is specifically useful. Each half contains an elaborate installation, which is markedly different in temperament and rhythm from the other. ''Till Death Do Us Part'' by Anaida Hernandez is fraught with urgency, while ''A Town Portrait'' by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is a remembrance of things past.
Ms. Hernandez, who is from Puerto Rico, was moved to make her work by threatened changes to a 1990 law in her country, which made domestic violence a crime. In an interview with the gallery director, Susan Hoeltzel, Ms. Hernandez said many politicians had been accused under the law. With the help of a journalist who gained access to police records, Ms. Hernandez found the names, ages and dates of death of 100 women killed by their husbands between 1990 and 1993. These facts are handwritten in a florid script at the base of the installation.
The main part of the work is a large grid with basically a horizontal orientation. It is composed of shallow boxes standing upright, which are modeled after those ubiquitous boxes containing flowers or other mementoes from mourners in cemeteries in San Juan where burial is above ground. But Ms. Hernandez has instead painted on the bottom of each black box brightly colored imagery that addresses the fragmentation caused by domestic violence.
One saying declares that sometimes a public sacrifice is necessary. The families of some victims were reluctant to have a case made public, but Ms. Hernandez, who showed the work first in a public building in San Juan, felt that such a blatant illustration was the only way to preserve the domestic violence law.
Art created to serve a political cause often emphasizes rhetoric over any quality that can emotionally affect the viewer. Ms. Hernandez makes sure her installation has a subtle and lasting impact by making her symbols and their execution lively enough to keep the viewer's eye moving around the work to let the artist's intentions sink in. She seems to have a playful bent, which leavens her harsh messages: an ancillary piece, ''Crucigrama,'' is an outsize crossword puzzle having roughly the same format as the major work. The letters in the squares, each made by hand and having an original twist, form intersecting Spanish words that refer to domestic violence. In a glass case is a large book of stories, which Ms. Hernandez illustrated. The stories are about relationships between the sexes and are sometimes bawdy. It is reassuring to discover that this artist on a mission can see beyond the wreckage.
_______________________________________________________________________
Programa de educación en el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico que incluyó las siguientes actividades alrededor de la exhibición Hasta que la muerte nos separe, 1994:
- Doris Sommer, profesora de Lenguas Romances, Universidad de Harvard, El artista como agente cultural.
- Anaida Hernández, Conversatorio con la artista: La violencia doméstica y las prácticas del arte contemporáneo.
- Talleres interactivos y reactivos con estudiantes de las escuelas.
- Se impactaron a más de 20 mil estudiantes y visitantes durante los tres meses que permaneció expuesta
_________________________________________________________________________
Referencias
1- Ensayo por Raina Lampkin-Fider, Catálogo de la exposición Ridle me this what I'am, 2000, Amazon.com
2- Ensayo por Margarita Fernández. presentación catálogo Hasta que la muerte nos separe
3- Reseña por Enriquez Garcias Gutiérez, Periódico Nuevo Días, 2004.
4- Reseña por Dra. Mercedes Trelles, Periódico El Nuevo Días.
