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Negro’s Nose
Dims: 18 x 21 feet.
Ceramic Installation. Premiered at Cuchifritos Gallery during Solo show as part of Artist Alliance Residency Program. New York, 2022.
Negro’s Nose, a ceramic installation, focuses on forms of verbal violence and linguistic racism that are used to dehumanize Black communities. The installation is derived from the phrase ‘Hazlo como hacer nariz de negro en tiempos de fango’ (‘Do it like making a negro’s nose in times of mud’), commonly used in the homes of white families in the Cuban countryside to suggest doing something without care for quality, finish, or finesse; it does not need to be well done; take it, shrink it, throw it and it will be enough for the purpose intended. Covering the walls of the gallery, 2,000 ceramic noses are installed to resemble the arrangement of enslaved Africans in the trade ships. The repetition of the numbered and branded noses becomes a meditation on the harm of daily language.
