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Room E3 · 2018 · cyanotype on cotton, herbal tone

Para acá
también
vive gente.

Inspired by Puerto Rico · Hurricane María With Reynaldo · Los Olvidados, Guatemala KOIK Contemporary · 2023
01 — On the room

This room simulates a space inspired by the F.E.M.A.-tarp-roofed houses that remained in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María. The blue plastic tarp became roof, wall, and shroud for thousands of families through two hurricane seasons of “temporary” shelter. Under the Caribbean sun, the blue plastic cast a constant hue across every interior it covered — the defining visual condition of daily life for survivors. The installation reinstates that light. The viewer stands inside the color those families lived in.

Inside the simulated room hangs Reynaldo — a portrait from the Los Olvidados series. The cyanotypes were printed and washed on the same Mexico City rooftop where the rest of the exhibition was made, then toned with coffee — a crop tied to the island's agricultural history and the labor of the same communities documented. The cloth carries both the image and the context it came from.

An image toned with coffee, hung inside a gallery whose ceiling is lined with an actual F.E.M.A. tarp — the same material, the same light. The work does not represent the condition; it reinstates it. Source material from the Los Olvidados · Puerto Rico ↗︎ documentary chapter.

02 — Works in the room

Cloth, tarp,
shelter.

Para acá también vive gente — room walkthrough, KOIK Contemporary 2023
001Room walkthrough · Para acá también vive gente · KOIK Contemporary, 2023
03 — Studio notes

Paper before
cloth.

Before each large cyanotype is printed on cotton under direct sunlight, the studio makes a smaller test print on paper under a UV light. The tests carry handwritten notes — date, exposure, wash — and resolve the chemistry before it migrates to cloth. These are studio artifacts, not editioned works.

Paper test — Reynaldo seated on couch with Virgen de Guadalupe pillow, vinegar-toned cyanotype on paper, 15min UV exposure, 28 Jan 2023
test · 28 jan 2023UV 15min · vinegar wash
Paper test — woman in striped tank, refrigerator open behind her, vinegar-toned cyanotype on paper, 17.5min UV exposure, 28 Jan 2023
test · 28 jan 2023UV 17.5min · vinegar wash
Paper test — elder woman in headscarf and patterned dress, vinegar-toned cyanotype on paper, 15min UV exposure, 28 Jan 2023
test · 28 jan 2023UV 15min · vinegar wash
Paper test — older man with hands clasped, soft kitchen light, vinegar-toned cyanotype on paper, 18min UV exposure, 28 Jan 2023
test · 28 jan 2023UV 18min · vinegar wash
04 — The film

Two storms,
in moving image.

Los Olvidados · Puerto Rico — film
AV02 · Experimental short · 2022

Los Olvidados — Puerto Rico.

The F.E.M.A.-tarp-roofed houses that remained after Hurricane María — Don Ángel González and after. Field stills, moving footage, archival audio. The film made for this room.

Continue to the
next room.

The exhibition continues with Lluvia de sangre — three installations of Guatemalan communities reshaped by hurricanes intensified by climate change.

For institutions & collectors
Room E3 — works from Para acá también vive gente are available for acquisition, exhibition loan, and institutional placement.