Mara Magdalena Campos-Pons: Everything Is Separated by Water

About this book

A stunning mid-career retrospective of an important and influential contemporary Afro-Cuban artist With a diverse oeuvre ranging from painting to mixed-media installations to performance video and photography Mara Magdalena Campos-Pons is one of the most significant artists to emerge from post-Revolutionary Cuba. Her evocative works probe questions of race class cultural hybridism and national identities in African diasporic communities. Mara Magdalena Campos-Pons: Everything Is Separated by Water is the first full-scale survey of the artists career. The title borrowed from one of her works evokes at once the dangerous sea crossings faced by her enslaved ancestors from Africa and her Cuban contemporaries seeking greater freedom in America and the sense of dislocation felt when physical and geopolitical barriers divide family and friends past and future. Lisa D. Freiman considers how Campos-Ponss practice which is predicated on concepts of separation memory and fragmentation developed and transformed from her artistic training and early production in Cuba in the 1980s through her move to the United States in 1991 and her subsequent recognition as a major figure in the international art world. Okwui Enwezor interprets Campos-Ponss expressive materials--reassembled fragments of lost traditions and symbols and memories of personal and collective history religion and mythology--within the context of post-colonial theory. Handsomely designed and produced this book offers an unprecedented opportunity to assess the significance and import of this challenging artists work. Published in association with the Indianapolis Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Indianapolis Museum of Art (February 25 June 3 2007) Bass Museum of Art Miami Beach (September 21 November 12 2007)