Autosutención, retribución, acción, destrucción.

 

Nadie nos llama gallinas consiste de una instalación de una granja temporera durante el periodo de dos meses ocupada por alrededor de 20 a 25 gallinas ponedoras. El espacio dentro de la granja estará dividido en secciones mediante el uso y apropiación de una forma similar al símbolo de cruz utilizado por el partido Nacionalista Puertorriqueño o los primeros españoles colonizadores en las velas de su caravelas. La instalación estará compuesta también por un grupo de pinturas, realizadas con el escremento de las gallinas, cuales se iran integrando a la exhibición durante los dos meses que estará abierta.

 

 

INTERVIEW BY ELENA TAVECCHIA

 

Christopher Rivera - Nadie Nos Llama Gallinas, Space AREA, Puerto Rico

February 7 – March 28, 2015

 

Elena: What about the chickens? Are they a constant presence in Puerto Rico?

Christopher: Chickens are such a wonderful domestic animal. I will have to make sure they are safe and comfortable for the duration of the show, two months. I’ve never worked with live animals before, it’s always been something I have had interest in and I am able to explore that in this project. It adds all these layers of preparation.

For me the culture of the chicken has always been present. Growing up in Puerto Rico there was a woman that used to take care of me as a kid, she had chickens. I remember feeding and playing with them in the patio. Also my stepfather was involved with some cockfights for a while, I think everyone in Puerto Rico knows someone involved in that sport. You need chickens to breed these specific roosters. We even have a famous local salsa singer named Tito Rojas, who is known as “El Gallo”, which translates as “the rooster”, also slang for a player or womanizer. Even the mascots of the University of Puerto Rico that I attended are roosters and chickens.

 

E: Do the chickens acquire an allegorical meaning?

C: I see the chickens more like a symbol. If you look back at the beliefs of the Yoruba religion for instance, chickens were the first ones to inhabit the earth, they accompanied the divinities from heaven to earth. This solves the problem of “what came first, the chicken or the egg?’’ The chicken came first and from heaven! I guess that’s why they sacrifice them. For me, I use the chickens as an extension of myself or others that surround me.

So there is a symbolic presence. Think of the performance by Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Death of a Chicken) from 1972, in which she held a decapitated chicken upside down, allowing the  blood to spill on the floor. I don’t kill the chicken in my work, but as in her performance the chicken transcends its animal character in order to explore different significances and associations of this animal. Papo Colo also explores the use of animals and its attached symbolism. I remember attending a performance in which he carries a lamb through the beach and then precedes to kill and cook it, and all those attending the performance eat the lamb. An image of a lamb is part of Puerto Rico’s National shield. I guess he was using the lamb in a more explicit and direct way, as a submissive and vulnerable animal, playing on ritualistic meanings and spectacle, mesmerizing his viewers.

 

E: What came first, the title or the project?

C: The project came before the title, but the title was perfect for the project that I was trying to create. I took it from the movie Back to the Future 2, whose narrative takes place in an imagined future, which is 2015. I like the ambiguity of the word chicken, it can become a symbol of cowardice, as with the idiom of calling someone a chicken, meaning they don’t have the balls. We are chickens but we are not chickens at the same time. Even the two boxers facing off on the invite seem to call eachother “chicken.” Then apply that to an entire country being a chicken, that’s the connection for me with the symbol of the nationalist party. But it’s also a joke, because it’s just chickens living inside this symbol. This is the idea when I found the title of the show

 

E: Would you show this project somewhere else or was it important to be in Puerto Rico?

C: I think a lot about the context and while this work could exist in a different context, Puerto Rico is going through a crucial moment right now which makes the work feel all the more relevant. Additionally I would like to create a program around the project itself. There is a small museum in Caguas that has educational programs, I would like to host a kids program to see their different reactions once they are in that setting.

 

E: Do you think your work is political and how do you see it political?

C: I see it as political in the sense that I am using a political symbol, which inherently references its history and associations. But it is also not political, because of the use of space, aesthetics, and how the language of art can transform any political meaning into the aesthetical. I consider my work as a continuous dialogue between political ideas and art aesthetics, and how they can combine into something larger that is not only about Puerto Rican independence. I am not a politician, I am an artist and I am really clear about this. I want to create a dialogue and see what people think and interpret about the work. I read an interview of Jimmie Durham, discussing Juan Sanchez’s work (a professor at Hunter, who gained a lot of fame in the ‘80s), and talking about how politics can become a fragile symbol between how you use it for political purposes, and if you use politics to make art. That’s where I try to create a division, of course it’s about politics, but it’s not only that, it goes beyond.

 

E: Are you ever concerned that your work will be misinterpreted? In the US the idea of a flag is very important, there is something about nationalism and a sense of reverence. In Italy no one really cares about the flag except for ceremonies, while here it is a very charged emblem. I wonder if working with the symbol of the flag might have a similar charge. Are you afraid of consequences?

C: I know some people will see this as a solid political statement. The situation in Puerto Rico right now is so fragile and people are very passionate about their ideals. In a way I like to play with that tension. Even when I presented my work at Museo Del Barrio, a student from Puerto Rico at Hunter wrote me claiming it was too provocative. I don’t care if people think I am a nationalist because I am not. I am just using certain imagery in order to address the situation on a larger scale, to address our actual situation where there is a lack of consciousness about where we are as a country and how can we sustain ourselves. There are multiple layers I am interested in dealing with in the work, how in the end it depends on the chickens. It’s a way of talking about us.

 

E: In what sense is it a crucial situation for Puerto Rico? What’s happening?

C: There have been thousands of professionals leaving, so it’s becoming a more expensive country. The upside is that there have been a lot of new DIY projects, community projects, local farming etc., by people that stayed in Puerto Rico and are committed to changing the situation. There is a new mentality of this generation that is happened right now and it is something that has definitely influenced this project. Things are changing, and it is a crucial moment of opportunity for Puerto Rico to stop its dependence on the other, meaning the US. We have to be more sufficient in terms of everything that we do as a total. With more abandoned spaces, real estate is decreasing and the result has been a proliferation of more spaces for creativity. There are new designers, new artists, a street art festival, I think it is a response to what is happening. It is mainly in San Juan, but for instance AREA is in the middle of the island and all sorts of people are coming, it opens up the dialogue which is important.

 

E: What about the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party whose symbol you are using?

C: The party itself became a mock of a real political party. It’s as if it does not exist anymore as an actual party, it exists now more as a symbol or a style.

 

E: Which artists from Puerto Rico are important and influenced you?

C: The first one I can think of is Carlos Raquel Rivera. He is a print maker master, he had a strong influence on multiple artists after him and he was a political activist. He was arrested multiple times. There is one painting in particular that I find very powerful, Entre Muros, VI. At first glance it seems like an abstract painting composed of dark patches of green and blue speckled with orange brush strokes. Upon closer inspection one can discern the torches of nationalists in the night, as they walk through the mountain to hide guns for the revolution that never actually happened. Just this idea of something that you were preparing for but never happened is so powerful. Carlos Raquel Rivera and Carlos Irrizarry, all of them were arrested, they made performances in order to transform political ideas into art. It’s interesting to consider this friction between reality and non-reality, between art and politics. Both artists have explored this in a deeper way, to the point of getting arrested. Those two are among my biggest influences on the work I am doing right now.

 

E: How important is it to have the chickens inside the cage, in a constrained place, a lack of freedom situation?

C: Originally the cage was supposed to be in the shape of the cross, and the chickens would have been totally enclosed, enough to walk around but I felt they were not free enough. I wanted to let them walk in a bigger space with a fence. Either way the chickens are in a controlled and artificial space, which inherently addresses the concept of enclosure, or connotes prison. There are afterall still nationalist prisoners in US prisons.

 

E: What do you think of the younger generations in PR now?

C: The new generation is my generation. I think they are very conscious about what’s really happening. Among the friends I went to school with, many moved to New York, some stayed and started DIY projects, opening up bar, a library, a farm, a restaurant. Of my generation, a few people are moving back, or trying to have a stronger connection with the island. It’s what we can and need to do in order to revitalize the island. A good example is the non-profit space Beta Local, (betalocal.org). They host programming for artists and curators in which they encourage a mentality of self-sufficient motivation. Spaces like these are helping the new generation to overcome the political status and the economic situation. It is an experiment; no one knows where are we going. I don’t think it can get worse than this.

 

E: How do you perceive your identity as a Puerto Rican artist living in New York? Does that influence your work?

C: There is a long history of Puerto Rican artists living in NY. Unfortunately sometimes they become a cliché. They belong to the art world, but in the end they are recognized as Puerto Rican first and artist second. As for my identity, I will always be Puerto Rican but I don’t want my work to be only about that, I try to take it and push it in other directions.

 

 

 

Reviews

 

Primera Hora Newspaper

 

Zona F8

 

80 GRADOS