PODER: A collaboration with Cuban Artists.

Power, Waiting and Privacy are at the core of daily life in Cuba:  the Power of governmental bureaucracy; the Power of a neighbor’s dog barking at 3 a.m.  Waiting in line for two hours for a bus or for bread; Waiting for a change in relations with the United States.  Privacy in houses designed for a single family now bursting with three generations and the forth on the way; Privacy when awakened by music and/or noise in the middle of the night.   Living in Cuba, I have experienced all this and more. “Come back tomorrow,” “maybe later,” “it is possible,” “it’s very difficult, la lucha” –reverberating phrases for services I take for granted in the U.S.  Given the absurdity of so many situations, humor and laughter become the only means of survival.

Poder: Power (2010) 10 x 10 x 197”, Edition of 25 with 16 artist copies and 3 proof copies. Lithography, silk screen, linoleum and wood cut, and etching on paper. Essay by Yamilys Brito Jorge.

Steven Daiber in collaboration with 15 Cuban printmakers- Oscar Osmeivy Ortega, Eduardo Hernández Santos, Orlando Montalbán Rodríguez, Angelmaidelín Calzadilla Fernández, Jesús Reyes Romeu (Chucho), Hanoi Pérez Cordero, Jannette Brossard Duharte, Darexis Valle  Rodriguez, Isolina Limonta Rodríguez, Luis Lamothe Duribe, Alejandro Sainz Ramos, Dania Fleites Díaz, Aliosky García Sosa, Norberto Marrero Pírez, Yamilys Brito Jorge.

Fabricated in Spring 2010 Poder is the first in a series of three books in which Cuban artists frankly explore their social and political relationships–ideas developed during numerous meetings and conversations with the artists beginning in 2007. The second book Privacidad: Privacy was created in April 2011 and the third book Esperando: Waiting in 2012.

$2000.00

Collections:  Green Library- Stanford University; Smith College Art Museum; Cuban Heritage Collection, Richter Library, University of Miami; Special Collections Library, Wesleyan University, in Havana, Cuba–Museo de Bellas Artes, Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, ISA Institute of Superior Arts, Taller Experimenta de la Gráfica, and UNEAC (Union of Artists and Writers).

Power rules.

We are born and are powerful because in our relationships and connections, communication and contacts, we exercise that special force/energy (Power) with which all of us without exception come into this world.

Force is physical, Power is intellectual.

By making art and putting together this book we have chosen our way to relate to Power. All prints included illustrate, different aspects of The Relationships of Power in its various dimensions: the power of the mind, willpower, financial, military, economic power, the power of authority, social power, physical or mystical . . .

After all Power is a natural condition.

Yamilys Brito Jorge – April 2010