David Antonio Cruz
In my work I am interested in mapping out a nameless space. A space that lies somewhere between the Wizard of Oz and West Side Story. It is a queer, diasporic, psychological space that is constantly shifting. Where migrating bodies and landscapes mingle with candy-coated org... Read more
David Antonio Cruz
In my work I am interested in mapping out a nameless space. A space that lies somewhere between the Wizard of Oz and West Side Story. It is a queer, diasporic, psychological space that is constantly shifting. Where migrating bodies and landscapes mingle with candy-coated organs both real and imagined. Where a sense of place remains comfortably and sometimes uncomfortably un-located.
I draw from film, fashion, queer culture, American History, and personal narratives by collaging original footage and pre-existing footage to redefine events. The clothes that I designed are not only used as modes of identification, signifiers, instruments of passing codes, and distinguishing class; they become vessels, transporters, floating landscapes, and human pods.
During the last year I have been looking at political figures like Lolita Lebron, a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party who led an attack on the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954 to draw attention to the cause of independence for her island home, the modes of transporting migrant workers from the island during the 1950’s, and my relationship with father. I constantly question the reasons why people move and others resist change. What happens to a generation translated into a different land and caught in an intercultural, in-between stage, and how do they get back home?
