In January, 2020 I was commissioned to create an artwork that would spatially and conceptually suit a space within Facebook headquarters in Chicago, IL. The title of that installation is Dimensions of Comfort.
Dimensions of Comfort, 2020
A caress, a pigeon, a pile of folded clothes, and a portrait. These things have meaning and beauty. They are beautiful because they participate in the dailiness of life. Without the gestures of the ordinary, life would be less full - less precious. This installation celebrates the people and objects that actively, but ever so quietly, lend meaning to their surroundings; people and objects that enhance the commonality of our routines and remind us of the gestures of love and tenderness we learn from childhood. Dimensions of Comfort presents a text inspired by a selection of my mother’s major life events, and two paintings that reconstruct fragments of her life in the shape of a home. This work invites the viewer to contemplate and reflect on the poetry embedded in their own lives.
The text on the wall is titled Mother Wants a Modern House. It poetically weaves my mother’s major life events using some of the technical language available in Facebook's Life Events feature. This part of the artwork was hand drawn on the wall, using the “Palmer Method of Business Writing”. Young ladies of my mother’s generation were taught this method in anticipation of their becoming no more than teachers, or secretaries.
Mother Wants A Modern House, 2020
1968 Born in San Cristobal, Tachira, Venezuela. 1974 Started School at an all-girls elementary school. 1975, for Christmas, her father gifted her a pair of roller skates, which she took to her first Aguinaldo Mass that traditionally precedes a Patinata. 1976, for Christmas, her parents gifted her a bicycle - not the kind she wished for - but she enjoyed it all the same. 1979 Her sister Kleidy was born. 1980 Started junior high-school at a School with boys too. 1984 Fell in love. 1985 Got married, got pregnant, had her first daughter Vanessa, and her heart was full. 1989 Her daughter Gabriela was born, and her heart was full again. 1992 Started School at Instituto Universitario de la Frontera. 1993 Her grandmother passed, and her heart was full of sorrow. 1996 graduated with a Certificate in Business Administration and divorced. 2000 Moved alone to Merida and started New Job. 2002 Began a relationship. 2005 Bought a house. 2006 Got married, and her youngest daughter moved to the United States. 2009 Bought a pharmacy. 2010 Bought a second pharmacy, and her oldest daughter moved to the United States. 2011 Felt lonely. 2012 Sold pharmacies because Venezuela fell into a political and economic crisis. 2013 Bought the small company where her father had worked for many years. 2015 Thought about living closer to her daughters. 2016 Became a U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident. 2018 Her husband became a U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident and both, started New Job at Uber. 2018 Started School at City Colleges of Chicago. She cuts fruit early in the morning and serves it in small cups; she likes her coffee sweet, too sweet, and when there is no masa ready for arepas, she favors eggs and butter toast; she folds the clothes symmetrically, and washes the bathroom curtain twice a month; she likes to smoke cigarettes, but limits herself to one or two a day; she tells the truth and sometimes she lies, but I know that she enjoys the sun better than the rain, or the snow, and that in 2020 she still wants a modern house.