Untitled (fence)

2005

Silkscreen on paper
Printed at Taller Contemporania Nelson Domingo, Havana, Cuba

Untitled 3 (winged figure)

2006
Silkscreen on paper, with acrylic
printed at Taller Contemporania Nelson Domingo, Havana, Cuba.

I first met Hanoi in 2006 when he helped me on a print series at the Taller Nelson Domingo. Hanoi is an avid fisherman and I got to know him during our fishing adventures. His work is personal. Hanoi was born with a spinal deformity and underwent surgery to correct it when he was four. Using these x-rays and images of the iron fence on which he was impaled, he creates a metaphor for current Cuban life. He told me the story behind his unfortunate injury: in his youth, he fell out of the second floor window of his school and onto the iron fence below which impaled  the same shoulder from his corrective surgery.