Description: curved sheet top, dark abstracted background with torn prints of old photos of a woman and a young boy over which a cartoon flies diagonally across the image with flaming feet
Label Text: "To search for racial, cultural, social, and political definitions rooted in and erupting from a hostile environment is a necessity in my creative process. To dig deep into the history of the Colonized and the Colonizers, and to take back what is rightfully ours, is part of the process." Juan Sánchez
Born of Puerto Rican parents and raised in Brooklyn, Juan Sánchez uses layered imagery in his work to address the complexities of national identity and to advocate for the rights of Puerto Ricans and people of Puerto Rican descent. Using photographs, words, collage, and spontaneous marks, Sanchez seeks to construct a new view of life as an American of Puerto Rican heritage.
This print features Astro Boy, a character from Japanese anime that appeared in cartoons on American television during the artist’s childhood. Flying directly toward the viewer with a determined look on his face, Sánchez’s version of Astro Boy sports a Puerto Rican flag on his right arm. Behind Astro Boy are images of the artist as a young boy dressed in a suit and bow tie. Beneath the photographs are abstract symbols from Taino culture, the indigenous people who inhabited Puerto Rico and who were decimated by colonial contact.
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2007.5.3 |