USJ’s Community Selects Puerto Rican Art Piece For Permanent Addition to the Art Museum’s Collection

Written by Samuel Turgeon

On October 10, the University of Saint Joseph’s Art Museum held a purchasing party to select a new addition for the collection. There were five pieces on display, four of which appeared in last semester’s exhibit: “(R)evolution: Identity and Power in Puerto Rican and Diasporican Art.” The event was open to the public, but only museum members and USJ students were permitted to cast votes. Attendees were served desserts and invited to peruse the art museum and generate opinions about the displayed pieces. After a brief presentation, members were invited to submit votes for the piece that they wished to see the museum purchase. The eventual winner was Antonio Martorell’s “Bestiarium Politicum Portoricensis.”

“Bestiarium Politicum Portoricensis” is the piece that I found the most interesting. The concept for the piece is a political jigsaw puzzle, in which politicians are rendered as animals in the style of medieval bestiaries. Each political figure is transformed into a unique animal, and provided with a scientific name. Barack Obama, for example, is rendered as a zebra and provided with the name “Obamus Zebra.” This piece was my favorite because I found it easy to get lost in. I could spend a significant period of time examining the characters and animals, and continue to find a new detail with each glance.

In addition to “Bestiarium Politicum Portoricensis,” Antonio Matorell is the creator behind two other pieces in the exhibit: “Cita de Lammenais” and “Lluvia de sangre.” Each of them serves as a commentary on war and political violence. “Lluvia de sangre” is a three-dimensional piece in which an umbrella is suspended from the ceiling. Hanging from above the umbrella are a multitude of red strings intended to symbolize blood. The underneath of the umbrella is labeled with the names of various sites of violence from around the world.

In addition to Martorell’s work, the purchase party included pieces from Yasmín Hernández and Carolina Caycedo. Hernández’s piece, “Bieké Sobresaliente,” was also three-dimensional, featuring a full-sized barbed wire fence. From the barbed wire dangled pairs of swimming trunks, upon which beautiful nature scenes were painted. Caycedo’s piece “Let Us Tell You About the Bonds of Puerto Rico” invokes themes of capitalism and money. She references a 1970s advertising campaign for the Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico in order to examine the ways that economic colonialism prioritizes the needs of tourists over the needs of the Puerto Rican people.

Each of the pieces on display were beautiful, and it’s a shame that they can’t all be made into a permanent part of USJ’s campus. I look forward to seeing “Bestiarium Politicum Portoricensis” become part of the permanent collection and am hopeful that the art museum will hold similar events in the future.

Featured image, photograph of Antonio Martorell’s “Bestiarium Politicum Portoricensis”, by Samuel Turgeon