WEBVTT 00:00:12.557 --> 00:00:15.720 OSORIO: It's hard to explain to people  what I'm trying to do as an artist, 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:19.010 because I do not fit the artist description. 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:22.760 I'm always doing everything so subvertive. 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:24.543 Like always differently. 00:00:30.040 --> 00:00:34.640 My work deals a lot with contradiction. 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:36.701 I embrace contradiction. 00:00:40.760 --> 00:00:46.780 Contradiction can coexist with  beauty—it can coexist with anger. 00:00:47.866 --> 00:00:53.071 It can coexist with the different  emotions. The human body. 00:00:54.623 --> 00:01:13.863 [ latin music ] 00:01:19.160 --> 00:01:25.351 In "No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop,"  it's about recreating my memory. 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:31.240 When I was five years old, my father  took me to get my first haircut, 00:01:31.240 --> 00:01:32.475 right around the neighborhood. 00:01:35.600 --> 00:01:41.190 What was meant to be a celebration,  became a disastrous event. 00:01:44.160 --> 00:01:49.415 This barber, he was not used to  dealing with kinky hair, curly hair. 00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:58.113 I was crying a lot, I was scared. I was  traumatized by the sound of the hair clipping. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:06.680 There was a combination of race, a right  of passage into becoming a little man, 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:11.097 and I think that they both  came together simultaneously. 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:33.960 "No crying allowed in the barbershop"  deals with the issue of machismo, 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:35.320 but as a whole. 00:02:35.320 --> 00:02:38.923 And as a whole, it connects  to the universe, somehow. 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:47.960 The piece pays homage to my  father, a man of African descent. 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:51.400 I often feel that as people of African descent, 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:56.810 we were completely displaced from  the community that we come from, 00:02:57.320 --> 00:03:02.144 which is, which is a contradiction, but  it makes sense in Puerto Rican reality. 00:03:04.516 --> 00:03:07.480 MAN: when he was about eight or nine years old, 00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:12.080 I noticed that he painted the  ceiling of the house, of his room. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:16.340 It was beautiful, you know, it looked  beautiful, so later on I got happy. 00:03:16.739 --> 00:03:20.560 LUISA: He always—everything,  he wanted always to, to— 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:28.887 he was doing all kinds of articles like, like  houses, trucks, cars and everything, he would. 00:03:30.040 --> 00:03:33.240 And we enjoyed seeing him working,  because I want him to make, 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:34.920 at least to have a trade. 00:03:34.920 --> 00:03:39.280 Coming from a working-class family,  being an artist is not an option, 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:42.560 it's more of a challenge than anything else. 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:52.003 I just cannot remember ever saying,  "I'm going to be an artist." 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:58.634 It was not a possibility,  It was not an alternative. 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:10.920 I was working as a social worker,  and I put that role in my pocket. 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:14.400 I always had to have two things  happening simultaneously, 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:19.259 just in case one didn't go good, well  then I had the other one to survive. 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:41.680 The only way that I can connect  Is by doing installation work, 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:47.814 because I feel that I needed to say something  that had to be beyond something on the wall. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:59.640 I need to create a space that is overpowering. 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:10.760 I'm very much aware that my  work, it's one that provides, 00:05:10.760 --> 00:05:15.000 aesthetically, an uncomfortable  reaction in many people. 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:20.880 It's interesting, because a lot of the  people ask me, "Do you live like this?" 00:05:20.880 --> 00:05:26.759 "Is this how your home is?" And it isn't—I  am making a very calculated intervention. 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:35.160 When this piece, "The Scene of a  Crime," was at the Whitney Museum, 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:39.520 it almost felt as if I had  taken a piece of the South Bronx 00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:43.193 and placed it in the middle of Madison Avenue. 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:52.520 The Latino community has been portrayed  as one that is very accessible. 00:05:52.520 --> 00:05:54.840 And in, specifically "The Scene of a Crime," 00:05:54.840 --> 00:05:58.510 it has a yellow ribbon where  people are not allowed to come in— 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:05.600 because I have delineated  these very specific spaces 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:10.229 and very specific issues as sacred spaces. 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:30.726 And as you stand and you're not allowed  to come in, then you need to reflect. 00:06:31.834 --> 00:06:33.926 And you need to confront yourself— 00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:38.616 almost as if I stand a giant  mirror right in front of you. 00:06:42.960 --> 00:06:48.480 Every time I create a work of art, and I go  into different, other sectors of society, 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:55.960 to gather information, and the work is  created when I bring together where I am 00:06:55.960 --> 00:06:59.520 and where the rest of society is. 00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:04.760 MAN: okay, I just want to know if this, do  we have to keep on visiting you behind bars, 00:07:04.760 --> 00:07:12.880 or are we going to live like a family already,  'cause you in jail and us two out here, 00:07:12.880 --> 00:07:15.929 you know mom is probably, ain't barely  making it, you know what I'm saying? 00:07:17.859 --> 00:07:21.640 MAN: I used to get up in the middle of  the night to change your pampers, to… 00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:26.440 You pissed on me a couple of  times, you used to cry and, 00:07:26.440 --> 00:07:27.680 and I remember all of that. 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:31.738 I remember the first words that  came out of your mouth was "daddy." 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:40.600 I didn't pass this year, 'cause  it was one death after the other, 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:42.520 and then you getting locked up. 00:07:42.520 --> 00:07:45.660 And it was just like everything,  you know, just falling on me. 00:07:45.660 --> 00:07:50.160 OSORIO: What I would love people to  come out is thinking who they are 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:55.680 in relationship to what they have  just seen, and start a negotiation. 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:00.360 Not only with the artwork,  but the public at large. 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:08.180 Who I am. Where do I stand? 00:08:09.089 --> 00:08:10.859 MAN: I love you now, son. 00:08:12.201 --> 00:08:16.440 OSORIO: I'm very much aware that what  I wanted to do is to provoke change, 00:08:16.440 --> 00:08:20.507 not only socially, but physically and spiritually. 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:49.040 MAN: You've done public art projects in  barbershops,in taxi cabs, in basketball courts. 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:51.920 Is this the first time you do a  project within a domestic setting? 00:08:51.920 --> 00:08:54.720 OSORIO: No, I've worked in Santa Barbara. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:56.920 It was called "state of preservation." 00:08:57.880 --> 00:08:59.160 And it was about plastic. 00:08:59.160 --> 00:09:04.040 I went with the whole issue of the stereotypical  imagery of Latino family using plastic. 00:09:04.040 --> 00:09:07.920 And I went into this very open-minded  family, a very wealthy family, 00:09:07.920 --> 00:09:12.268 and we plastified the whole house. 00:09:12.268 --> 00:09:14.680 [ laughter ] And they lived like that for about three months. 00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:16.960 Every single precious object was plastified. 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:20.080 And it was incredible—they  were really open-minded people. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:27.280 "Home Visits," it's loosely rooted in religious,  popular tradition of the visiting saint. 00:09:27.280 --> 00:09:36.697 When I was a kid, we were visited by a niche  of a virgin of Guadalupe, sent by the church. 00:09:38.160 --> 00:09:43.060 And I thought, what about the  same thing with contemporary art? 00:09:44.035 --> 00:09:46.560 WOMAN: It almost looks like  there's flame in there. 00:09:46.560 --> 00:09:51.031 OSORIO: Why can't contemporary art visit  one home after the other for the week? 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:03.920 The idea of the new century,  it's about… a renewal, for me. 00:10:03.920 --> 00:10:06.400 I wanted to go back and renew all this— 00:10:06.400 --> 00:10:10.240 my mission, my philosophy,  my way of looking at art— 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:13.995 and I know there's something missing  that I wanted to find or create again. 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:16.857 Who's that in the front? 00:10:17.633 --> 00:10:18.320 GIRL: That's the... 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:20.074 [ laughter ] 00:10:20.074 --> 00:10:21.180 GIRL: Telling a story. 00:10:21.180 --> 00:10:23.415 OSORIO: Telling the story of how it happened. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:27.400 The story's based on Tina and her two daughters. 00:10:27.400 --> 00:10:32.040 Tina lost her house and all  her possessions, due to a fire. 00:10:32.040 --> 00:10:34.800 Shortly after it happened, she put  a little blanket over the girl. 00:10:34.800 --> 00:10:40.720 And, you know, so there's a lot of  stories inside that the family told me. 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:50.000 I was intrigued by the idea that I've gained so  much, yet the possibility of losing it overnight. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.366 So, moving right along, I've got to take  it to another place, another opening. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:57.960 I'm going to miss the house,  'cause it's been here for a week 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:02.560 and it's going to feel funny  having this space opened. 00:11:02.560 --> 00:11:06.920 Since childhood, I have felt that  somehow there is one piece missing. 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:17.200 When I got to New York, I spoke  English, but it wasn't good enough. 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:24.880 So then I just felt that somehow I couldn't  understand completely what was going on, 00:11:24.880 --> 00:11:26.280 but I got a picture of it. 00:11:26.280 --> 00:11:30.400 But it wasn't so good that it  didn't get the real picture of it. 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:35.200 And sometimes I feel that I'm eternally,  you know, displaced, that I'm there, 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:37.167 but I'm not quite there. 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:46.388 But I think that, as an artist, I've been able  to resolve one thing—to find my own place. 00:11:48.760 --> 00:11:54.080 I have a very clear mission. I know  exactly what I wanted to do with my work, 00:11:54.080 --> 00:12:00.720 and how my displacement somehow seems  perfectly fine for the people out there. 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:04.334 Because there are many of  us in the same boat as I am.