The Loisaida Center is proud to announce

2014 Loisaida Artist in Residence:

Dey Hernández-Vázquez


Deymirie “Dey” Hernández-Vázquez

September, 2014-November, 2014

Objective

The objective was to create a installation or performance piece in remembrance of Julia de Burgos, using “poetic images to create a space that lifts off from the page allowing the spectator/participant to drift into the actual space where the artistic experience is taking place, la Casita.

Overview

Deymirie “Dey” Hernández-Vásquez is an architect, teaching artist, and puppeteer who works in a variety of media. She is a passionate advocate for the arts as an active educational tool, and the issues of race, identity, language, and community are fundamental to her work as a cultural educator and artist. For the past 6+ years, she has designed and facilitated art workshops with AgitArte, a non-profit organization dedicated to initiate and support artistic and popular education projects in disadvantaged and marginalized communities to further the struggle for social justice. Dey is also an artist and puppeteer of the radical workers’ healer collective, Papel Machete. Their performances in community, theaters, streets and protests employ puppets, masks, objects and music to denounce exploitation, build solidarity, and agitate to action in the struggles of the working class. All of their cultural work is generated collectively through facilitated creative processes and construction workshops using papier-mâché as their medium and exploring a wide range of forms and styles that include toy theater, cantastoria, shadow theater, table-top puppetry, humanetts, cutouts, masks, and giant puppets. Dey’s arts and architectural background are key to the design and construction of giant puppets, puppetry booths, shadow shows and toy theaters. Dey Hernández-Vázquez received an MA from the School of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan in 2010. She currently lives and works in Boston.

Completed Project

In November of 2014, Dey Hernández-Vázquez successfully executed an interactive exhibition in honor of poet Julia de Burgos, titled “Casita: for Julia de Burgos.” This installation marked out personal territory within the public realm, eliciting the creative and intimate space of the casita, while also fighting against the reduction of Julia de Burgos to “the stereotype of the bohemian poet who lived a tragically short life.”

Links


Casitafor Julia de Burgos

In the danger of having the memory of Julia reduced to the stereotype of the bohemian poet who lived a tragically short life…Dey’s architectural installation carves out a personal territory, a physical place in remembrance of Julia de Burgos.