Mural design by Dionis Ortiz, painted by Publicolor students as part of Publicolor Community Museum initiative.
Location: East Harlem Council for Human Services, Inc. Bilingual Head Start Program, 440 East 116th St, Between 1st and Pleasant Ave
Mural design by Dionis Ortiz, painted by Publicolor students as part of Publicolor Community Museum initiative.
Location: East Harlem Council for Human Services, Inc. Bilingual Head Start Program, 440 East 116th St, Between 1st and Pleasant Ave
Give me the light is a participatory installation made up of 1,369 light-bulbs that addresses gentrification in New York. My goal is to bring light to people of color who are deemed invisible.
Long time community members are invited to participate in a workshop to personalize their own light bulb with Acrylic paint and create collages. These collages will be kept by the participants as a memory of their experience.
Harlem and Washington Heights, both culturally vibrant communities, with large population of immigrant families and people of color, continues to endure and thrive, even through this time of gentrification in many major cities across the country. These communities are currently witnessing the addition of more commercial and rental properties as well as inflating rental costs, as NYC locals are beginning to call this community home. This proposed project hopes to engage the families that have always called this neighborhood home, allowing them the artistic freedom to express their feelings about their experience of the impact of gentrification through art.
The light bulbs will be prepared as a set of garden lights and when displayed, will illuminate an outdoor space as an installation in the community.
The purpose of this project is for people to recognize the light within themselves and claim their visibility in the Harlem and Washington Heights community.
I was inspired by Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man, where the protagonist sits in a basement filled with 1,369 light bulbs.
Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form. Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death. I myself, after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility. Ralph Ellison
My aim is to convey a feeling of movement, past and present. I incorporated the adinkra symbol Sankofa which means “return and get it." It symbolizes the importance of learning from the past. East and Central Harlem have gone through a multitude of changes and transformation and it continues to do so and I look for the reader to get a sense of that change and optimism.
This piece was reproduced in etched steel and attached to the railing overlooking the Harlem River.
Original specs: Sumi ink on paper, 11 x 17 inches
For public access: Enter the park using the ramp over Harlem River Drive at East 139th Street and Fifth Avenue. The Artist’s Cove in Harlem River Park near East 141st Street
Commissioned by the Harlem River Park Fund, 2011.
The mural exemplified Dominican culture that exists in the Washington heights community by highlighting Dominicans from New York, the music and carnival culture. It was located on Dyckman St and Sherman Avenue.
Mural specs: Painted on a 30 x 40 feet brick wall.
Design specs: Acrylic on paper, 11 x 17 inches