Raw concrete and exposed drywall —these rough materials form the skeletons of two immersive new shows at Locust Projects, yet each one explores distinct ideas about connection, communication, and forgotten architecture.
The bare walls of the mazelike environment constructed by William Cordova in the art center’s main space may seem forbidding at first. It’s easy to get lost while navigating the cramped, liminal rooms and hallways, reminiscent of urban legends such as the “backrooms,” an extra-dimensional realm resembling a creepy, nondescript office environment that originated from paranormal internet fandom communities.
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But this stripped-down interior is based on a pair of much warmer, fictitious houses. In the installation, titled “algo•ritmos (2 tienes santo pero no eres babalao),” Cordova has reconstructed the floorplans of two 1970s sitcom sets: “Good Times,” which aired on CBS for six seasons, and “¿Qué Pasa U.S.A.?,” produced by local PBS affiliate WPBT.
According to Cordova, the aim of “algo•ritmos” is to compare and contrast these two shows, which ran concurrently. Both offer distinctive depictions of minority experiences in America, and in the process, ask probing questions about how media affects our perceptions of each other. The show reflects on the ephemerality of cultural memory. We find sculptures by Cordova reminiscent of various artifacts from the sitcoms: bead circles and Polaroid photos, a triangular ornamental mirror that resembles one hung on the wall in “Good Times.” Aside from these few pieces of decor, the stripped-down sets offer little indication of what was once there, a physical manifestation of our fading memories of these once-familiar homes and families.
There’s also content from shows that never were: A mini-TV plays video from “Sak Pasé, U.S.A.?,” an unproduced Haitian Creole version of “Qué Pasa.” The only extant footage from the project, showing the title sequence, was recovered and digitized by Barron Sherer, a Miami-based media artist and archivist.
“The exhibit in general is this meditation on time, space, architecture, (and) subtle, nuanced narratives on race and culture – and who is interpreting those narratives,” says Cordova, who grew up watching both shows. “Who’s writing it, who’s producing it, and who’s presenting it? And is it flawed? Is it real? Does it matter?”
Though similar in many ways, the two shows were made for very different reasons. “Good Times” focused on the working class, African-American Evans family in a Chicago housing project. it was a commercial sitcom produced in Hollywood and was part of what was essentially a sitcom franchise under the umbrella of Norman Lear and his influential, politically contentious hit “All in the Family.”
“¿Qué Pasa U.S.A.?,” meanwhile, looked at a Cuban immigrant family in Little Havana, the Peñas. Made entirely in Miami, it innovated as America’s first bilingual sitcom and was relatively successful for a PBS show, yet it only ran for four seasons (39 episodes) and was cancelled when its funding, which came from a federal grant, ran out. Production issues are reflected in Cordova’s work: But he considers the program to be even more challenging than even Lear’s socially-minded shows.
“It was way ahead of its time because it was addressing, and not in a two dimensional way, themes of race, of religion, of homosexuality, of class, the hypocrisy of people’s nationalisms – just a plethora of information on themes that were going on that you would never see, not even on ‘All in the Family.’ You just didn’t see that there. You saw certain things, but it was mostly laughable.”
Nearby, another project has similarly transformed Locust’s space, with markedly different results. “Drawn Breath, Exhaled Frequencies” is a collaboration between three artists: Michael Webster, a sculptor and photographer based in South Carolina, and two spoken-word artists, Arsimmer McCoy of Miami and Selina Nwulu, who is of Nigerian-British heritage and lives in London.
The installation is concerned with communication in a time of crisis: An arched doorway lined with soundproofing foam leads us into the art center’s project room, where we find a group of satellite dishes hewn from what looks like raw concrete (really a combination of wood and a water-based sculpting material called Aqua Resin) emitting curious messages.
The satellite dishes are meant to evoke sound mirrors, the massive concrete structures that were placed all along the south coast of England between the World Wars as an early warning device in case of aerial invasion. McCoy, Nwulu, and Webster have repurposed the idea for a novel form of transatlantic exchange.
“We thought about this as a conversation across the ocean that was an early warning system in itself,” says Webster. “How can poetics and writing and performance become a system of early warning that’s more about experience, and about perspective, and about the ongoing kind of political and social climate that’s happening between the two countries?”
McCoy sees the work as a response to the multitude of crises facing both the United States and the United Kingdom. “I think we’re not tacking on one thing, because it’s all insane from every angle, from every point,” she says. “This is the warning that if we do not address them, if we do not take the time to heal and to take care of ourselves, what the end result will be.”
She continues, “The politics of pushing past is what I think I’m addressing through this work. And I think we are all kind of having that conversation. And so the warning is like, what is the cost of the push-through? What is the end result of just sucking it up and saying ‘oh, that’s life?’”
In all, four mirrors occupy the room, two on the floor and two mounted on a wall. The higher pair are each equipped with a speaker playing recordings of poetry from McCoy and Nwulu. Viewers can sit in front of the lower mirrors to hear one side or wander through the room and listen as the two voices mix, forming a kind of sonic architecture.
Though Webster provided the initial concept of the show and brought McCoy and Nwulu on later, all three consider themselves equal partners.
“Some artists will ask for collaborations, but really it’s, you know, plug and play into my vision. And this is very different,” says McCoy. “This is, yes, his pieces, he made them, but he has brought us in to also be sculptors in our own right. All of our names are on the wall, and that doesn’t happen all the time.”
IF YOU GO
What: “algo•ritmos (2 tienes santo pero no eres babalao)” and “Drawn Breath, Exhaled Frequencies”
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Through Saturday, Oct. 25.
Where: Locust Projects, 297 NE 67th St., Miami
Cost: Free
Information: (305) 576-8570 or locustprojects.org.
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