ECOS COMO AGUA DE MANGO

Ecos Como Agua de Mango (Echoes Like Mango Water) is an installation created around the question of how Miami connects, or does not connect, to the Caribbean, specifically Cuba. Linares, a Cuban born and raised artist living in Miami, answers this question by portraying Miami as a fragmented memory of the Caribbean. Although Miami is not contextually part of the Caribbean, it has places that remind people of the Caribbean and, therefore, become an echo of it. These areas are memories built by communities of immigrants who yearn for their motherland.

The installation, which plays with volume and materials, showcases images of the surroundings (garden) of a house located near the borders of Little Haiti that was built in 1951, where the artist spent most of her summer in 2022. Inspired by her personal observations and summer experiences, these two geographies connect through seasons, food, and water. Elements such as the rawness of the place, attention to detail, green outdoors, tropical almonds, mangoes, and shadows of trees in the photographs create moments of contemplation. The recurring presence of mangoes in different stages reminds us of the fleeting passage of time through the impermanence of the season, as "what blooms also dies." Furthermore, the water component is not only included in the title but also in the installation, with the inclusion of blue paint on the wall resembling a sea level horizon, and the use of blue tiles.

Time is also an important element in the installation, predominantly present in the artist book beneath the six grouped photographs. The book functions as a calendar, with the number nine representing the number of years the artist has lived in Miami since leaving Cuba. The tropical almonds allude to the artist's childhood, as she used to eat them during lunch breaks or after school by breaking them with a rock. The photograph of a mango on concrete, a recurring material used by the artist, alludes to the connection with Caribbean architecture, in contrast to Miami, where most buildings are constructed with drywall.

2022