Cristina Cordóva and Preludios y Partidas Contextualized

Philip Davenport

University of South Carolina Upstate

March 24, 2013

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(Fig. 1) Artist Cristina Cordóva was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1976, but moved

with her Puerto Rican parents to the island when she was six months old. She was raised and

educated there and in 1999, upon receiving her B.A. at the Colegio de Agricultura y Artes

Mecanicas, she moved to the United States to pursue her M.F.A in Ceramics at Alfred University

in New York. (Fig. 2) In a close study of Cordóva’s ceramic sculpture Preludios y Partidas

(translating to Preludes and Games), this paper explains some of the artist’s influences, many of

which reference her cultural heritage. I will also connect her art to both theater and dance, which

the artist has also cited as important influences. Finally, throughout this paper I intend to

demonstrate that Cordóva’s art conveys her personal experience with metaphysical

contemplation and subsequently provides an invitation for the audience to do the same.

Though Cordóva has taken residence in the United States for well over a decade, she has

exhibited extensively in Puerto Rico and identifies strongly with her Puerto Rican roots.1

Because her art reflects her heritage, Puerto Rico’s rich and complex history must be briefly

described in order to grasp some reoccurring imagery in her work. Puerto Ricans define

themselves as “a homogenized Taínos, African, and Spanish mixture.”2 The island was first

inhabited by the indigenous Taínos people who identify themselves as “Amerindians,” present

on the island before Christopher Columbus’s arrival in 1493.3 The Spanish introduced

Catholicism to the Puerto Rican people and slavery as a means of working plantations. The slave

population introduced African culture to Puerto Rico.4 Among other influences the African

1 Cordóva, Cristina, Resume, online, accessed February 13, 2013, http://www.cristinacordova.com/resume.

2 Santiago-Irizarray,Vilma, "Puerto Rico," Countries and Their Cultures, Ed. Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember,

Vol 3, New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001, 1814-1824. 3 Santiago-Irizarray, Vilma,“Puerto Rico,” Countries and Their Cultures.

4 Ibid.

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slaves brought brujería or voodoo religious practices.5 Another religion, filtered into Puerto Rico

via Cuban immigration, was santería. This involved a preexisting “blend of Yoruba and Catholic

religions,” which combined with European spiritualism already present on the island.6 “Both

posit a spirit world, worship a hierarchy of guiding saints and deities from the sacred and secular

worlds, and practice divination.”7 Thus, many Puerto Ricans exhibit a cultural blend of religions,

with many inhabitants participating in multiple forms of religion simultaneously.8

(Fig. 3a and Fig. 3b) During an interview I conducted with Cordóva she explained that

visual references appear in her work that derive from the various religious practices of Puerto

Rico.9 Specifically, she indicates the tradition of the santeros who carved small wooden

devotional figures dedicated to patron saints and other figures of the Catholic faith.10

In

Preludios y Partidas there is reference to these figurines in the use of the human form as an

object of spiritual meditation.

In another nod to her heritage, Cordóva urges the audience to “consider the use of

concrete and steel in the piece,” which are, “the main building materials in the island of Puerto

Rico (and most of the Caribbean) due to hurricanes.”11

Her use of materials references not only

the fortification of structures to enhance their safety, but also indicates the reality that many of

the island’s inhabitants face dire economic strain. Steel and concrete not only protect against the

elements—many people are forced to barricade their homes with steel bars to deter intruders.

5 Santiago-Irizarray, Vilma, Countries and Their Cultures.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Cristina Cordóva, email correspondence, March 5, 2013.

10 Carrión, Arturo Morales, A Special Voice: The Cultural Expression, in “Puerto Rico A Political and Cultural

History,” New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc (1983), 343. 11

Cristina Cordóva, email correspondence, March 5, 2013.

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When considering commonalities among Puerto Rican artists some scholars have asserted

that “the most powerful cultural symbol is the island itself.”12

Cordóva agrees with this concept

and says, “These metal and concrete faceted structures carry notions of individual confinement,

of meteoric microcosms or islands. Having grown up in an island, this last icon has always been

particularly resonant in my work.”13

In addition to referencing Puerto Rico’s socio-political

realities, the island can also be seen as a metaphor for interiority, functioning as still points for

the artist’s introspective journey. Cordóva expands upon this notion, explaining the Jungian

concept of the island as, “a refuge from the menacing assault of the sea of the unconscious…. It

is a place for beginnings and transitions, isolation and introspective solitude.”14

Thus, the artist

uses the “island” not only as a literal reference to her homeland, but also as an emblem of

existential isolation and as a reference to individual subconscious. With Cordóva’s main

emphasis being introspective contemplation, she must employ the concrete and steel formations

to carefully yet meaningfully ground her work in the physical space in which it exists. The

concept of isolation and introspection, evident in the figures’ positioning and facial expressions,

transport Cordóva’s otherwise very massive and weighted sculptures into the realm of the

metaphysical where the paradox of their materiality is belied by their undeniable spirituality and

temporality.

(Fig. 4) Cordóva other sculptures often meditate on these issues as well, including Islas,

where a contemplative figure ponders the life ahead and the world behind, not unlike the figures

of Preludios y Partidas, who ponder the point at which they have arrived. In both pieces the

figures are situated on floating islands mounted on the wall. This installation choice complicates

the appearance of weight and materiality in both works. The heavy-seeming sculptures hover,

12

Santiago-Irizarray, Vilma, Countries and Their Cultures. 13

Cristina Cordóva, email correspondence, March 5, 2013. 14 Ibid.

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suspended in a sea of negative space that is created by the backdrop of the wall. The installation

on the wall does not allow the heaviness of the figures to impose so greatly upon the viewer. We

are in the same physical space as the figures of Preludios y Partidas and Islas, yet we also stand

apart from them, which sustains the figures’ and our own isolation.

Cordóva was originally trained as a classical dancer.15

Harnessing her cultural heritage

and harmonizing it with her performing arts background, she prides herself on transforming

sculptural representations into choreography of a universal/metaphysical experience. In my

interview with the artist, she indicated that she, “attempts to create a sense of theatricality and…

‘choreograph’ a composition. Like in ballet and modern dance the narratives are subtle and

openly propelled by the emotional threads that cue an intuitive understanding of the work.”16

This “choreography” used to manipulate the audience’s reaction into that of “intuitive

understanding,” can be analyzed and understood through the methods and objectives of absurdist

playwrights from WWII Europe and butoh thespians of Japan during the 1960s and 70s, both of

which Cordóva admits to being greatly influenced by.

While Eugène Ionesco, a prominent absurdist writer argued that “Absurd is that which

has no purpose, or goal, or objective,”17

I would argue that this is quite the opposite of the truth

and interject that there is in fact a goal to absurdity and its use in the theater of this period. This

was to seek truth in the meaning of existence in a world of seemingly unpredictable occurrences.

The Theater of the Absurd found its meaning within the characters’ “irrational element of their

own individual existence and of existence in general.”18

It was a continuation of both Dada and

15

. Cristina Cordóva, email correspondence, March 5,2013. 16

Ibid. 17

Esslin, Martin, “The Theatre of the Absurd,” In The Tulane Drama Review 4 (1960): 4, accessed February 25,

2013, http://www.jstore.org/stable/1124873. 18

Hollier, Denis, and R. Howard Bloch, "The Theater of the Absurd," In A New History of French Literature,

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989, 1011.

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Surrealist movements of twentieth century Europe, “attempting to transcend mundane surface

realities and arrive at a ‘surreality’ where powerful forces of the unconscious could be tapped.”19

Further, these artists of the absurd sought to be “cured of words.”20

They were disconcerted with

the belaboring of language used in “slogans, propaganda, and jargon,”21

which encouraged

passivity and detracted from the harsh and bloody realities of the traumatic time following

WWII.22

The playwrights were strongly influenced by the events of the time period including the

death and destruction of the war and the effects wrought by leaders like Stalin and Hitler.23

In the repertoire of absurd plays there is a script written by Jean-Paul Sartre called No

Exit, in which three characters ponder their lives after death. They search for a singular reason

for their placement in this hell-like afterlife. In reality there is no single reason. All three

characters enter into a circulatory dialogue analyzing each others’ existences, oblivious to the

actuality of their disillusioned lives. The characters finally conclude that “Hell is—other

people!”24

Their dialogue catalyzes the audience into a similar analysis of their own lives.

Like a theater director Cordóva evaluates her own reality in the creation of Preludios y

Partidas. She illustrates a metaphysical space in which she “cues” the audience to perform the

aforementioned analysis of existence. Substantiated by references to her personal experiences

and cultural heritage, Preludios y Partidas is not only a constitution of Cordóva’s personal

reality, but a representation of the moment in which she transcends it, providing an invitation for

the audience to do the same. In No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre the protagonist exclaims during a

19

Gaensbauer, Deborah B.,"Jarry, the Dadaists, and the Surrealists," In The French Theater of the Absurd, Boston:

Twayne Publishers, 1991, 10. 20

Ibid, xix. 21

Ibid, xix. 22

Ibid, xvi. 23

Ibid. 24

Sartre, Jean-Paul. “No Exit.” In No Exit and Three Other Plays, 45.

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moment of revelation, “…can one judge a life by a single action?”25

The truth of reality is

revealed, it consists of all experiences, influences, and moments that make up a lifetime.

Cordóva’s piece, reflecting upon the same notion, poses these same questions of reality to its

audience. The figures in Preludios y Partidas, like characters in a play, are set upon their

dislocated pedestals in a state of suspended enlightenment. Their ghost-like presence reveals

their contemplation of the metaphysical realm in which they float.

(Fig. 5) The female figure reaches with one hand and points softly with the other as if she

is literally putting her finger on the answer that has materialized before her. (Fig. 6) The other

figure crouches as if still searching for the enigmatic truth of his existence in the waters offshore

of the isolated and concrete island on which he is perched. Cordóva’s sculpture asks the audience

to search simultaneously for “the possible meaning of what is happening,”26

which lies within

this moment and space that the characters of the installation share with the viewer. The figures

exist in the same physical space, but they are psychologically isolated and lost in thought. The

circulation of thought between the figures, Cordóva, and the audience is reminiscent of the

“circulatory of dialogue,” realized in the absurdist play No Exit. Though the figures do not

appear to be in conversation, the dialogue is held in the metaphysical space flowing around the

figures. It has neither a definite beginning nor end, urging continual transcendent introspection.27

(Fig. 7) In the wake of World War II, another theater movement was created by the

Japanese actor Hijikata Tatsumi.28

He deemed it “ankoku butoh”29

which translates to “dance of

darkness,”30

with butoh being the common name. Referred to both as theater and dance, butoh

25

Sartre, Jean-Paul, “No Exit,” in No Exit and Three Other Plays, (New York: Vintage International, 1989), 43. 26

A New History of French Literature, 1011. 27

Journal of Spanish Studies: Twentieth Century, 62. 28

Sas, Miryam, “Hands, Lines, Acts: Butoh and Surrealism,” Qui Parle 13(2003): 20. 29

Ibid. 30

Ibid.

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performances consist of “intricate, unpredictable movements, extreme facial expressions, and use

of white body paint on exposed flesh” and “cannot be defined in terms of a consistent style.”31

(Fig. 8) Cordóva visually alludes to butoh dance through the white tinted figures in Preludios y

Partidas. Like Cordóva’s installation, butoh has no plot line or spoken dialogue; however, both

create an experience in which the audience invests their subconscious.

Butoh was highly influenced by European Surrealism of the 1920s and 30s.32

It was

during the 1920s that the surrealist movement of Europe was introduced to writers in Japan.33

Evidence of the relationship between Japanese and European Surrealist writers is referenced in

an article on the subject of butoh and surrealism in the journal Qui Parle, in which Japanese

writers state, “We have accepted this technique which provides us materials through the modes

of conscious perception, without having to accept the limits of consciousness.”34

These writers,

like the European surrealists, wished to transcend perceived reality and touch upon a place where

they believed true consciousness resides.

The definition of butoh’s mission relies heavily on paradox.35

While influenced by

Surrealism, it attempted to accomplish everything that surrealism had not achieved. One of the

primary distinctions between the two art forms is surrealism’s use and butoh’s rejection of

language. Butoh would be considered an “anti-language,” 36

defining its metaphysical space with

the use of movement and expression produced by the body, without the confusion of language.37

This stress on the use of the body as the medium resonates within Preludios y Partidas

because the expressions and gestures of the figures play a key role in charging the space with

31

“Hands, Lines, Acts: Butoh and Surrealism,”20. 32

Ibid, 19. 33

Ibid, 24. 34

Ibid. 35

Ibid, 23. 36

Ibid, 26. 37

Ibid, 21.

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meaning. Though in dance movement is inherent and Cordóva’s sculpture is static; she is able to

convey a similar kind of artistic intention and experience for viewers using sculptural

representations of choreographed bodies. Yes, these bodies are suspended in time and gesture,

but, like butoh dancers, they shape and change the space around them.

Butoh uses body language as an “endorsement of a more…private reality.”38

Like

surrealism and absurd theater, it is a way of disconnecting from all preconceived notions of

reality, but performers in butoh attempt to go beyond the definable and reach into a completely

metaphysical plane of universality. This is comparable to Cordóva’s Preludios y Partidas in

which the artist illustrates transcendence and subsequent discovery of a universal moment.

Although her heritage resonates in her piece and reveals her individual reality, these aspects of

Cordóva’s work are incorporated in a way that does not distance the audience or make them feel

separate from something indicative solely of Puerto Rican heritage. Rather, Cordóva uses

symbolism that is recognizable to the subconscious making it universal to all audiences. One of

the most poignant and resonant descriptions of Hijikata’s work is that of his performance titled

650 Dance Experiences about which he stated, “each of the 650 spectators in the theater would

have his or her own unique encounter with the work.”39

(Fig. 9) The power of the individual experience, evident in Preludios y Partidas, reveals

itself in the meditative quietness in the surreal scene. Cordóva refers to this as “the quiet before

the storm.”40

This quieting of the mind, the comfortable feeling of disconnected contemplation,

is a theme that is visually reiterated and flows throughout Cordóva’s sculptures.

Cordóva taps into the subconscious and finds a universal space, one explored in the

methods of absurd theater and butoh as well. Like the dancers of butoh and actors of the absurd,

38

“Hands, Lines, Acts: Butoh and Surrealism,” 21. 39

Ibid, 23. 40

Cristina Cordóva, telephone interview, February 21, 2013.

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Preludios y Partidas brings the audience into a metaphysical realm of contemplation and a space

that taps into a moment of awakening and self-realization. Cordóva stated in our interview that

she attempted to leave herself out of the piece.41

I believe that she can reject the self in order to

create a universal space, but art inevitably contains some mark of its maker. In Preludios y

Partidas, Cordóva proves that this metaphysical identification can nevertheless be universal.

41

Cristina Cordóva, telephone interview, February 21, 2013.

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Works Cited

Carrión, Arturo Morales. A Special Voice: The Cultural Expression. In “Puerto Rico A Political

and Cultural History.” New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc,1983. 319-52.

Cordóva, Cristina. Email Correspondance. March 5, 2013.

Cordóva, Cristina. Resume. Online. Accessed 13 Feb. 2013.

http://www.cristinacordova.com/resume.

Cordóva, Cristina. Telephone interview. February 21, 2013.

Esslin, Martin. “The Theatre of the Absurd.” In The Tulane Drama Review 4 (1960): 3-15.

http://www.jstore.org/stable/1124873. Accessed 25 Feb. 2013.

Fig. 1: Cristina Cordóva working in studio. Courtesy of American Craft Council webpage.

Photo taken by Michael Mauney. http://craftcouncil.org/content/cristina-cordova-portrait

Accessed 5 Mar. 2013.

Fig. 2: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte. Photo by Laura Brown.

http://mintwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/24543675/Cristina%20C%C3%B3rdova. Accessed

5 Mar. 2013.

Fig. 3a: Domingo Orta, Milagro de Hormigueros, 1998, wood carving. Museo de Arte de Ponce,

Ponce. Photograph by John Betancourt.

http://www.santosdepr.org/Santosesp/SantosSpanIndx/Indice/VirgenMonserrate/Vhormig

uerosOrta.htm. Accessed 5 Mar. 2013.

Fig. 3b: Cristina Cordóva and Preludios y Partidas (detail). Mint Museum, Charlotte. Photo

Courtesy of Cristina Cordóva. http://www.mintmuseum.org/news/update-project-ten-ten-

ten. Accessed 5 Mar. 2013.

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Fig. 4: Cristina Cordóva, Islas, 2011, ceramic, concrete, resin.

http://www.cristinacordova.com/gallery. Accessed 15 Feb. 2013.

Fig. 5: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte. http://www.cristinacordova.com/gallery. Accessed 15 Feb. 2013.

Fig. 6: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte. http://www.cristinacordova.com/gallery. Accessed 15 Feb. 2013.

Fig. 7: Paul Ibey performing butoh, November 10, 2012. Courtesy of Appalachian State

University News. http://www.news.appstate.edu/2012/11/05/butoh-dance-paul-ibey/.

Accessed 20 Feb. 2013.

Fig.8: Butoh dancer performs, August 23, 2011. Courtesy of Joel Sadget/Getty of The Guardian

Weekly. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/23/letter-japan-butoh-dance-

sampler. Accessed 14 Mar. 2013.

Fig. 9: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte. Photo by Laura Brown.

http://mintwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/24543675/Cristina%20C%C3%B3rdova. Accessed

5 Mar. 2013.

Gaensbauer, Deborah B., "Jarry, the Dadaists, and the Surrealists." In The French Theater of the

Absurd. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991. 3-12.

Heartney, Eleanor. “Art & Today.” New York: Phaidon Press Inc., 2008.

Hollier, Denis, and R. Howard Bloch. "The Theater of the Absurd." In A New History of French

Literature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989. 1006-1011.

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Quackenbush, L. H. “Theatre of the Absurd, Reality, and Carlos Maggi.” In Journal of Spanish

Studies: Twentieth Century 3 (1975): 61-72. Accessed Febrary 25, 2013.

http://www.jostor.org/stable/27740669.

Routté-Gómez, Eneid. “Caribbean Myth, Magic, and the Mainstream.” In ARTnews 94 (1995):

112-113. Print.

SANTIAGO-IRIZARRY, VILMA. "Puerto Rico." Countries and Their Cultures. Ed. Carol R.

Ember and Melvin Ember. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. 1814-

1824. World History In Context. Accessed March 6, 2013.

http://proxy.uscupstate.edu:3991/ic/whic/home.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. “No Exit.” In No Exit and Three Other Plays, 3-46. New York: Vintage

International, 1989.

Sas, Miryam. “Hands, Lines, Acts: Butoh and Surrealism.” Qui Parle 13(2003): 19-51.

Accessed Febrary 25, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20686149.

Schultz, Katey. Article in “From the Inside Out- Two Views on the Creation and Experience of

Cristina Cordóva’s Clay Sculptures.” Online. Accessed March 12, 2013.

http://www.ceramicart.com.au/cap64.shtml.

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Fig. 1: Cristina Cordóva working in studio, photo taken by Michael Mauney, courtesy of

American Craft Council webpage.

Fig. 2: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte. Photo courtesy of Laura Brown.

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Fig. 3a Fig. 3b

Fig. 3a: Domingo Orta, Milagro de Hormigueros, 1998, wood carving, Museo de Arte de Ponce,

Ponce, photograph by John Betancourt.

Fig. 3b: Cristina Cordóva and Preludios y Partidas (detail) Mint Museum, Charlotte, photo

courtesy of Cristina Cordóva.

Fig. 4: Cristina Cordóva, Islas, 2011, ceramic, concrete, resin.

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Fig. 5: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte.

Fig. 6: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte.

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Fig.7: Paul Ibey performing butoh, November 10, 2012, courtesy of Appalachian State

University News.

Fig.8: Butoh dancer performs, August 23, 2011, courtesy of Joel Sadget/Getty of The Guardian

Weekly.

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Fig. 9: Cristina Cordóva. Preludios y Partidas, 2012, ceramic, concrete, steel, resin. Mint

Museum, Charlotte. Photo courtesy of Laura Brown.