Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Photograph: Phoebe d'Heurle.
The fire and burn with eyes that see, 2020
Oil and acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 in
121.9 x 91.4 cm
121.9 x 91.4 cm
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Firelei Báez casts diasporic histories into an imaginative realm, re-working visual references drawn from the past to explore new possibilities for the future. Drawing visual cues from folklore, sci-fi, and...
Firelei Báez casts diasporic histories into an imaginative realm, re-working visual references drawn from the past to explore new possibilities for the future. Drawing visual cues from folklore, sci-fi, and fantasy, her paintings frequently portray change-making creatures that inhabit fictional alternate universes with a stance of self-determination. Central to this work is the feminine-archetypal ciguapa, a trickster from Dominican folklore who, for Báez, embodies the potential to defy oppressive convention and break through generations of karmic loads. As a child, Báez was raised hearing stories of the creatures told as a warning: "you can’t be too wild, too much of nature, don't be too independent. Everything that’s inscribed onto that figure becomes the antithesis of ideal femininity." However, she explains, "as a kid I’d think, 'There's so much freedom in that, why would I not want to be that? Why would I not want to be untraceable and fearless?'" Shown here with lustrous manipulated hair, the figure serves as a shape-shifting agent for change. Crouching in a strikingly active and self-reliant posture, the character becomes “so possessed of her body that she can easily, acrobatically, move between spaces.”
Exhibitions
CARNIVALESCA - What painting might be, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany, March 6 to May 23, 2021.