Daniel Lind-Ramos in “Everyday Icons” - Season 11 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21

♪ upbeat percussion ♪

I was born here in Loíza.

We have a lot of invention going on.

The aesthetic of the masquerade.

related with the Fiesta de Santiago Apostol

related with African heritage.

I like to play with that.

A lot of energy is going on,

and energy not only
with Loíza, Puerto Rico.

but with the Caribbean in general.

There is a communication
going above the language.

There is something that is felt.

[leaves rustling in the wind]

[waves crashing]

There are many stories
related with immigration

in the Caribbean.

Most of the objects
that I try to pick up

are objects related with that story.

I have found a lot of shoes,
for example,

a lot of objects with luggage.

The sea bring it.

♪ uplifting ethereal music ♪

I love it.

The mangrove that I am doing
upstairs needs a lot of green,

and this could also represent the forest.

Beautiful.

This is a great finding.

It's a curved one.

It is like this.

What does the hurricane do, you know?

Or the movement of the wind.

The thing is that if
I have an idea based on

one of my experiences,

the material activate
my imagination.

♪ ethereal music ♪

I say, "Oh, I have this object
and it's related with this

narrative that I'm
trying to organize."

♪♪♪

And I start playing with it.

I incorporate that object.

Or I have to invent
an object to the idea,

putting this object
related with this one.

It's a very organic
way of organizing.

♪♪♪

Here in Loíza, the
community, for me,

is like an
extension of my studio.

— Nunu!

Mira.

Have you seen any more springs?

— On the Suárez plot. I have to talk to —

— But have you seen any more
in the street?

— Yes, which is why —

♪♪♪

See that color?

Everything have been
choosen to react against.

Here, look at this.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

Look at that.

♪♪♪

[Daniel VO] It
takes time, I feel it.

You have to be
there all the time.

You have to live with the piece.

♪♪♪

I literally sleep with a
notebook and with a pencil there

so I could trap the idea.

It's interesting how
sometimes you are sleeping

and then a solution comes.

And then there is a day
when you go to the studio

and there is an harmony.

"Oh, there it is."

My intention with
this approach is,

among other things, to remember.

[man VO] The first pictures
now coming in from Puerto Rico.

Hurricane Maria
slamming into the island and,

as you heard, one official
saying the island is destroyed.

[man VO] Tonight,
Maria's direct hit,

devastating Puerto Rico.

[Daniel VO] I remember
listening the roof of the house.

I was by myself, and
the sound of the wind...

[cacophonous noises], you know.

It was really terrible.

Then, I opened the door.

I wasn't supposed to
do that, of course.

Then you see the palm trees fighting.

It was sublime and terrible
at the same time.

It was something else.

And that's what I'm
trying to do with this.

How could I talk
about the terrible

and the sublime
at the same time?

♪ tense ambient music ♪

Bit by bit, I was gathering
debris from the hurricane.

The tarp comes like a sea.

See here?
Like a sea.

Water...

sand, represented by the burlap.

The rays of the storm, we
use copper and aluminum.

The thunder.

[drum booming]

So music, rhythm, sound are
related with the theme too.

And here, there is a figure
that might be pointing to

Virgin Mary.

The hurricane was
called "Maria,"

and Maria is the
mother of Christ.

For me to cite the
iconic representation,

there is a
contradiction there:

Virgin Mary in the
context of destruction.

♪♪♪

The way that these
houses are built,

they are not built in order
to support the strength of a

hurricane.

So I'm talking about
the problem of housing, too --

the people with less
resources to build something

strong and properly in order
to live in this area in the

Caribbean.

Something that I remember from
my childhood is that plant with

those flowers.

So imagine this road without
this -- sand and a lot of trees,

but the same road.

[dog barking]

[Daniel VO] The
experience of catastrophe,

that's not
exclusive of Puerto Ricans.

There is a universality,
regardless where you live in

this world.

People have to invent again.

When you don't have electricity,
you don't have water,

you have to be inventive.

And it's interesting because
knowledge from the past came again.

I remember when I was
a child here in Loíza,

everybody was doing something.

My grandmother
was a sewer,

my uncle Louis
was a mask maker,

and my other uncle
was a cabinet maker.

So you could imagine the
activities as a child,

working with tools
and woods and things.

It was beautiful!

♪ emotional music ♪

I like to construct
something that have unity,

even though I am
using diverse materials.

They are all alive, you know?

For me, that's language.

The way you arrange
them to obtain unity,

there I find beauty.

♪♪♪

[buzzing]

[Jorge] I'm going to put it there.

[Daniel] Try making a sound however you like.
Just try!

[conch blows]

That would be nice. It's melancholic.

[blowing continues]

Seems like already the Spaniards
were here killing Indians.

Like a lament, the longing of
something that has disappeared,

you know?

Which is that land
before Columbus arrived.

Use your imagination, yeah!

Recreate that in your mind
and then bring it through the

— instrument, yeah!
— Okay.

[Jorge] I'm gonna be trying to do what
our Taino Indians used to do,

and that is play it
with the sound that

was what they used
to communicate.

[Daniel] He was my student. [laughs]

[Jorge] If you didn't
learn something with Daniel...

-[chuckles]
-You are not in the right place.

He doesn't take a "No."

No, invent yourself, reinvent.

Yeah, he pushes
you to the limit.

"Okay, listen, try it."

♪ rapid drumming ♪

[conch blows]

Here in Loíza we use
costume all year long.

Let's get you a bigger one.

Mask for Victor!

The activity that I have
here is to invite people

from my community, my
friends and family.

Those neighbors dress in
the costume like ancestors

that came from the past
to be with us celebrating.

African ancestry is
very important ingredient

of our identity here in
Puerto Rico, of course.

— This is the only town in Puerto Rico
founded by Black people.

But no one ever taught me about the
African continent.

and I'm a person of African descent.

No matter how others see it,
Spain is not my motherland.

My motherland is Africa.

Now we are going to invite our poets.

They will be reading poetry there,
and if there is somebody

in the public that would like
to also, you know, read poetry

or whatever.

♪ drumming ♪

[Woman] Real estate is their religion.

The taxes, I pay those.

They saw us on the floor, they kicked us
in the ribs and they took advantage

with investments, with influence,
with everything they can buy with money.

"You can't live there, that's an Airbnb."

[Daniel] You have this space where
everybody who wants

could come and say something
and communicate.

♪ uplifting music ♪

[Woman] As a community and people
passing on traditions and histories

we have the responsibility to
continue with this, to survive.

[Man] We went to grade school together.

We're like family on this long journey
through a good life.

♪♪♪

My intention was to find a language.

find a process, find materials
that established the link

between our collective experience

and somehow bring something
different but authentic.

♪♪♪

We have that knowledge from the past.

We want to keep it and
bring it to other generation.

♪♪♪

♪ ethereal ambient music ♪