Screenprint dyptich onto 1mm and 0.8mm frosted polypropylene, 59.4 x 84.1cm ea. (2022)
What counts as official? If held up to the light does it make the document legitimate?
I got the chance to rewrite my information and rather than creating poetry I think of it as facts.
This work was the result of an external collaboration with Brixton Tate Library and Painting working with guest
poets Leo Boix, Lola Oh, Chloe Filani and Lewis Buxton in community workshops by Lambeth
Libraries Readers and Writers Festival. 'Papers' was shown from December 2022 to January 2023 in Brixton Tate Library for the exhibition titled 'Painting and Poetry' as seen from Windrush Square in the pictures below.
'Papers' was shown from December 2022 to January 2023 in Brixton Tate Library for the exhibition titled 'Painting and Poetry' as seen from Windrush Square in the pictures above.
The idea started off looking at the thickness of my Spanish/European and Colombian national
IDs, called DNI and cedula respectively. It had always been frustrating to me that the
Colombian ID isn't scannable at official venues; we lack visibility
and aren't even part of the main database, it feels as though we are not counted as an official country. In retrospect I realized how much more solid the Spanish ID truly
was, not only in its weight within world dynamics, by being a powerful nationality with reduced
travel restrictions, but rather its rigidity. The quality of materials right down to modern day speaks
to me of the post-colonial power dynamics where the glabal majority is still perceived with less
serosity and respect due to our lack of wealth.
The Spanish ID's thickness is a literal symbol of wealth, stability and lastly
respect; given by those millimeters that made the information within it easier to read once set
against the light from outside as less light travelled through and the text was set against an
opaquer surface in comparison to the cedula. The result for the public reading the part of the
Colombian ID/cedula was that they had to try harder to read it and physically look further up; it
was a test showing how as a non-European/white/world-power individual voices are more likely
to be unheard/unread/unnoticed.
Once put against the light, both 'IDs' in 'Papers' shine to show half of a poem I wrote, split in two
parts and three languages to make it accessible for as many audiences as possible. A copy of
the full poem was published alongside the exhibition in a publication.
Alongside my fellow artist Severina Dico-Young we were hired by the venue to design and produce the binded catalogue of the event which was done using Adobe InDesign and risograph printers.
'Papers' was conceived to fit the gallery space and shine against its sunlight to further themes of
legitimacy and mistrust. If I held myself to the light would people see me as honest or genuine?
