Black Ceiba 2010
The Ceiba tree is sacred within Afro-Cuban religions. By presenting it in the form of a bulbous and protruding sculpture, sometimes even phallic, Rodríguez is reviving a sense of the bodily and physical presence of Black Cuba.
Description
In “Elio Rodríguez: Of Joint Ventures and Sexual Adventures,” Sujatha Fernándes, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, writes, “The Ceiba tree is sacred within Afro-Cuban religions. By presenting it in the form of a bulbous and protruding sculpture, sometimes even phallic, Rodríguez is reviving a sense of the bodily and physical presence of Black Cuba. Given the trajectory of his Cuba-based body of work ranging from commentary on racial stereotypes to mixed marriages and sex tourism, it is not surprising that outside of
Cuba he would have more space to ponder the nature of Blackness as a submerged and often maligned category of subjectivity.”
Curated by Alejandro De La Fuente
Elio Rodríguez graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in 1989. Rodríguez is known for remaking film posters with black protagonists or leading men in the place of white film stars. He also creates soft sculptures such as Black Ceiba.