Christian Casas, artist and Department of Art graduate student, presents ¡Dimelo Cantando! in collaboration with Hybrid Arts Lab.
“¡Dimelo Cantando! illustrates events informed by my family’s experience immigrating to America from Cuba in the 1970s. Sad, humorous, and traumatic, these cartoon-like scenes interweave challenging stories from the lives of my Grandmother, Mother, and l. Engravings on Plexiglass are activated by a revolving beacon of light that creates a projection on the wall. These plexi drawings utilize humor to depict and retell formative events from my past, in order to seek understanding and resolve from trauma.
Inkjet photographs are reprinted on paper pulp. Sourcing these images from my mother, this collection of photos was retrieved following the death of her father. These photographs were sent to him back home in Cuba. She documented and wrote about her personal life, sharing her experience as an immigrant and single parent in America. In reprinting these images, and layering her written stories atop these memories...provide insight into my mother and her life before and right after I was born.”
Artist statement edited by Dareen Hussein, a graduate student studying Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice in the Department of History of Art.
Hybrid Arts Lab is a multi-venue teaching lab that experiments with how art is imagined, made, viewed and understood within physical and digital spaces. Venues include Hopkins Hall Gallery, Stillman Hall Tent, and online @ UAS from Home.