You Words Here: Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, "A Beautiful Time to be Alive"

*Photos by Zach Abubeker and Kelsey Wright

Impressions are a powerful force that shape individual character. As interactive creatures, we humans build up not only our understanding of the world but our expectations based on what our journey in life exposes us to. A fundamental rule of exchange is that it lives on a two way street. María Magdalena Campos-Pons’ exhibition, Life Has Not Even Begun at the Glass Curtain Gallery, explores the fluidity of identity. It is in further exploration of the work and in conversation with the artist, however, that one can begin to realize the beauty that exists in not only what we see, but also what we feel in the process of exchange in life with another human being.

For it is not only what we know, but what we share that makes us who we are. I had the privilege to have a conversation with the artist and get to know her and her work first hand. The work in Life Has Not Even Begun is a collection of Campos-Pons' most recent explorations on Chinese culture, as a component in her Afro-Cuban American identity. The work titled “China Porcelain: My mother told me I am Chinese,” a video installation in which a performance is projected on to glass vitrines incasing Chinese inspired porcelain vases of Santería and Gelede imagery, is a strong, yet ambiguous, statement. The beauty of this statement is that it opens itself to question how authentic these claims are, for we are looking at a dark skinned woman in “white face,” claiming to be Chinese. The common quote says: never judge a book by its cover. This is because the true joy of a story is the experience and its influence upon the reader.

I was curious as to what Campos-Pons felt connected her to Chinese culture. She replied “Chinese food” and “Chinese influenced caramelos (candy)” as early signifiers of this allegiance. This is where her views on the importance of the mundane and the everyday and its powerful imprint upon our personal identity, became apparent to me. 

“Never has sight been so crucial in our time …” stated Campos-Pons.  In our over saturated visual culture and times, the simple things we encounter in our daily lives and rituals become so important in how we see not only ourselves, but the world. There is a constant use of multiples in her work, which she explains as “representing time engaged,” or rituals, which can be mundane, yet powerful and influential.

Fluidity of identity is an important concept of Campos-Pons’ work.

In contemporary times, we can see a shift in perception on cultural identity. She calls President Obama “… a beautiful example of cross pollination.” In events such as Obama’s presidential victory, we begin to see that fluidity in identity is apparent in so much of what composes our world these days. There is much to look forward to in our future and what culture will become is never a certainty.

When asked what she had to say about our times and expectations for the future, Campos-Pons ecstatically proclaimed, “ What a beautiful time to be alive … we are citizens of the world, we are citizens of the planet, we are citizens of the universe, period.” The impressions, not only of her work, but of the energy of Campos-Pons herself, exerted their power on me. We are all citizens of humanity, and it is the impressions and exchanges, via our interactions, which bind our identities and make life worth experiencing.

-Article by Emanuel Aguilar
Fine Arts student