YO VENGO DE TODAS PARTES, Y HACIA TODAS PARTES VOY

Yo vengo de todas partes, y hacia todas partes voy is a site-specific, immersive installation by Cuban-born, Miami-based multidisciplinary artist Amanda Linares. Linares’ installation centers around notions of belonging and identity, recurrent themes in her practice that she explores through the intentional use of materials. Ideated and inspired by her discovery of a house in Asturias, Spain belonging to her paternal great grandfather, Linares’ installation is a highly personal exploration of her family history and ancestry, and how unearthing parts of our past can shape and complicate our understanding of who we are and where we come from.

In Yo vengo de todas partes… Linares recreates her great-grandfather’s home, a place she has only seen in pictures. Occupying nearly the entire back wall of the gallery, a large-scale graphite drawing on wood panels depicts the facade of the house. Geometric cut-outs on the panels make the image appear incomplete, visually reinforcing the idea that memory is oftentimes incomplete and imperfect. 

To accompany the drawing, Linares uses the varying sizes and heights of the geometric cut-outs to create sculptures that imitate sedimentary rock formations. The sculptural fragments are made by layering and adhering different materials, including concrete, plaster, wallpaper, fabric, resin, and glass. The sculptures are arranged throughout the gallery floor, which is covered with three different types of soil. As visitors walk through and around the space, the clear edges delineating each type of soil are slowly blurred. Linares’ deliberate and thoughtful use of materials and inclusion of sound elements creates a sensory experience that is tactile and auditory, encouraging a moment of reflection and contemplation.

The title borrows from Cuban poet and philosopher José Martí’s poem, “Yo soy un hombre sincero” and two of its verses, written lightly and directly on the walls with graphite, visually bookend the installation. Through Yo vengo de todas partes… Linares considers the complexities of the immigrant experience, while simultaneously emphasizing our shared humanity. Like the individual stones that make up her great grandfather’s house, we are connected by something intrinsic and indispensable, something larger than ourselves.

Text by Laura Novoa, Curatorial + Public Programs Associate of the Bakehouse Art Complex.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by: Oolite Arts, Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and Coral Gables Community Foundation

2024