kai

Cara al Tiempo (2020)

Cat bones, fur, porcupine spines, scoby (kombucha) and thread. 5.5Wx8.5Hx2D (inches).

For purchase inquiries please contact the artist at nieveskailey0@gmail.com

To learn more about the artist visit Instagram pages @huesosato or @hierba.santaa 

Artist’s statement

Cara al Tiempo is a reminder not to forget our identity or our history. For centuries Latin America has been pillaged while our ancestors have been raped, enslaved and murdered. The bones, some our own and some not, evoke the power and spirit that remains on earth even after we are gone.

For centuries we have been silenced and we will not permit this to continue. This mask is a call to harness our rage and empower ourselves with courage so our memories prevail in the history of our lands.

The bones are a call to remembrance to stop, once and for all, the disappearance of the knowledge of what our ancestors suffered; the same which they would also impose on us. Cara al Tiempo calls to deliver from the earth everything that afflicts us, so the earth can transform and provide us with food, home, solidarity, empathy, healing — so we can rebuild ourselves and remind ourselves to keep resisting those forces that would prevent us from existing in harmony with life.

About the Artist

Kai is a queer anarchist, transfeminist and non-binary
bio-designer, plastic artist, performer and farmer in Caribbean lands. They reside in their native country, Puerto Rico, and are currently working at their studio with ceramics, embroidery, organic wastes and animal bones. Through their work, they try to touch the political to make visible they/them experiences as a brown-skinned feminized body in a colony in the Caribbean. Through their work in ceramics, embroidery and bio-plastics, they seek an alternate form of sustainable living.

Artist Feature

Kai was the featured artist for February 23- March 1, 2021. We will feature a new artist of the Babelmasks Ad-Hoc Collective each week.

10 questions

1. In your Instagram you write, “que nada es lineal y que se vale ser vulnerable, intense, y brave, a la vez.” (“Nothing is linear and worth being vulnerable, intense, and brave, at the same time.”) Can you share more about this thought in relation to your work and your life as an artist?

A lo largo de mi vida como artista, he tenido muchas altas y bajas en mis procesos de creación y/o en mi vida personal por pequeñas experiencias y traumas que han surgido a partir de relaciones interpersonales y también por los métodos de exposición  artística en una colonia en el Caribe siendo un cuerpe feminizade que se ha autoeducado la mayor parte desde que se introdujo al arte, que tiene cero conexiones en el mundo del arte. Desde que comencé a “ser” artistx, nunca tuve una educación “completa”, la mayor parte del tiempo he sido autodidactx en el proceso, buscando información e inspiración, viendo a otrxs artistxs crear, etc. porque los curso que he tomado de arte han sido “one-time course”. Ser autodidacta en el proceso, siendo la primera generación de tu familia la cual se quiere dedicar al arte, no es una labor fácil. Si he sabido de familiares que han cogido una cosita aquí y allá pero no algo como que vivieran del arte, por tanto es algo un poco desconocido para mi familia, además de ser un cuerpe feminizade no binarie super político. es por esto último que digo que nada es lineal; porque la sanación, nuestros proceso creativos, nuestras relaciones interpersonales y todo lo que quepa; no es lineal. Conlleva mucho de nsotrxs enfrentarnos a estas cosas y partir de ahí para que no nos haga daño a nosotrxs ni a lxs que nos rodean y que en todo se vale ser vulnerable, intenso y brave a la vez porque nuestros sentimientos son válidos en cualquier momento, sin importar que alguien más los invalide o los pase por alto. A eso me refiero con esas tres palabras en particular. Que a a pesar de que haya personas que se nos opongan, que nos validemos desde nuestro interior hacie el afuera y que no importa cualquiera de estos tres sentimientos, vale la pena ser quién somos, cómo somos y, luchar y buscar lo que deseamos.

Throughout my life as an artist, I have had many ups and downs in my creative processes and /or in my personal life due to small experiences and traumas that have arisen from interpersonal relationships and also by the methods of artistic exhibition in a colony in the Caribbean and being a feminized body that has been self-educated in most parts since started in the art world and has zero connections in it.

Since I started to "be" an artist, I never had a "complete" education. Most of the time I have been self-taught in the process, seeking information and inspiration, watching other artists create, etc. because the courses I have taken in art have been a "one-time course".

Being self-taught in the process, being the first generation of your family who wants to dedicate to art, is not an easy task. I have heard of relatives who have taken a little thing here and there but not something like that they made a living from art, therefore it is something a little unknown to my family,in addition to being a non- binary feminized body super political.

It is because of this that I say that nothing is linear; because healing, our creative processes, our interpersonal relationships and everything that fits; it is not linear. It takes a lot of us to face these things and from there so that it does not harm us or those around us and that it is worth being vulnerable, intense and brave at the same time because our feelings are valid at any time, no matter if someone else invalidates or overlooks them.

That's what I mean by those three words in particular. That despite the fact that there are people who oppose us, we validate ourselves from within to the outside, and that no matter any of these three feelings, it is worth being who we are, how we are and fighting and looking for what we want.

2. In your work, you talk about questions of visibility and what must be made visible, what others often try to make invisible. You mention this with regard primarily to your ancestors, the culture they passed on to your generation, and to the question of sexual identity. Can you talk about ways that have seemed most effective in making these narratives visible again?

Cuando hablo de visibilidad, hablo en general de lo que confroma nuestres cuerpes. Hablo de la historia que cargan por nuestres ancestres, hablo de la historia que en esta actualidad hemos creado y hablo de la cantidad de personas que existen en el mundo que van en contra de los roles de género. Digo

“general” porque realmente no existirían nuestres seres si realmente no ponemos en contexto lo que pasaron nuestrxs ancestrxs para que nosotrxs estuviéramos aquí en este país tan colonizado. Digo cultura que ha sido pasada y traducida a nuestro contexto, porque los tiempos y las cosas cambian y todos los días surge algo nuevo a lo que hay que reflexionar para deconstruirnos y construirnos de forma individual como en comunidad. Y para mí una de las cosas que también se tienen que visibilizar, es la cantidad de personas que no se sienten conformes con los róles de género y que eso implica muchas cosas en nuestras vidas personales y las relaciones que tenemos con los demás. Pienso que a través de la cultura (el arte envuelto ahí) y la educación, la creación de comunidades sin exclusión, podemos visibilizar estas cosas y no tan solo eso; si no que también hacerlo desde un espacio donde visibilize mis experiencias y que otrxs también puedan visibilizar las suyas sin yo apropiarme o invalidarles.

When I speak of visibility, I speak in general of what makes up our bodies. I am talking about the history carried by our ancestors; about the history that we have created today, and the number of people in the world who go against gender roles.

I say "general" because our beings would not really exist if we did not really put in context what our ancestors went through so that we could be here in this very colonized country.

I say culture that has been passed and translated into our context, because times and things change and every day something new arises that we must reflect on, in order to deconstruct and build ourselves individually as well as in community. And for me one of the things that also must be made visible is the number of people who do not feel satisfied with gender roles, and that this implies many things in our personal lives and the relationships we have with others.

I think that through culture (the art involved there) and education, the creation of communities without exclusion, we can make these things visible and not just that; if not, I also do it from a space where I make my experiences visible and that others can also make theirs visible without me appropriating or invalidating them.

3. Regarding ancestral presence, culture, and history, and the violence that has been worked upon those, how do you embody your role to keep this history alive, and what would you most want people to understand about your ancestors? You also talk about the rescue of ancestral knowledge. “de igual forma, recata y visibiliza conocimientos, tradiciones y costumbes ancsetrales dentro de nuestro context en la ‘modernidad’ como colonia.”  What can you share about that sense of rescue as it appears in your work?

Yo quiero que las personas que vean mi arte, a pesar de lo “estético” y “bonito” que se ve, es el sufrimiento que mis ancestrxs pasaron. Que la historia de Puerto Rico no es una historia bonita. Que aquí vinieron a colonizar, violar y matar para sacarle provecho a este país y que en los libros de historia no cuentan nada de eso, ni que Cristóbal Colón fue un genocida. Quiero contar que que seguimos atados al imperio norteamericano y que estamos llenxs de rabia; pero que no nos cojan pena por nuestra historia.que sepan que no vamos a tolerar más atropello, violencia ni colonización.

En cuanto al sentido que yo le veo rescatar estas costumbres y/o tradiciones dentro del contexto de la modernidad es que a pesar del largo tiempo que le lleva una cosa a la otra y la conciencia de que los tiempos cambian y nada es igual , si no que se transforma… ir rescatando todas esas cosas que nuestrxs ancestrxs nos dejaron y transformarlas. Lo que yo hice en mi trabajo, no es necesariamente lo que mis ancestro hacían o hicieron, pero sé que el trabajo con los huesos lo hacían para cazar, para vestimenta, para rituales de muerte, etc. Y lo transformé dentro de mi contexto dándole otro sentido sin invalidar y sin faltarles el respeto.

I want people to see that my art, despite how “aesthetic” and “beautiful” it looks, is the suffering that my ancestors went through. The history of Puerto Rico is not a pretty story. Strangers came here to colonize, rape and kill the people and take advantage of this country. The history books say nothing of that, nor that Christopher Columbus was a genocide. We are still tied to the North American empire and that we are full of rage; but without reaching the line that they feel sorry for us. We let them know that we will not tolerate more abuse, violence or colonization.

As for the sense that I see rescuing these customs and/or traditions within the context of modernity, it is that despite the long time that it takes, and the awareness that times change and nothing is the same, it transforms . . . the idea is to rescue all those things our ancestors left us and transform them. What I do in my work is not necessarily what my ancestors did, but I know they worked with bones for hunting, for clothing, for death rituals, etc. I transformed the materials within my own context, giving it another meaning without invalidating and without disrespecting them.

4. Concerning the complex question of self-identity, in one of your Instagram posts you write, “visualizo mi cuerpa como ese hormiguero de emociones que muchas veces no cabe en si y donde a veces ni se reconoce. Esto es pa’ regresar a unx  a pesar del miedito.” (“I visualize my body as that anthill of emotions that often does not fit in and where sometimes it is not recognized. This is to return to unx despite the fears.”) “This” refers to a series of individually made ceramic vessels intended to hold plants. Did you eventually use some of these for plants, and did these carry a kind of healing or visibilization for you? How do the fears you speak of change and shift over time?

En cuanto a ese post, estuve teniendo unos días intensos donde no me reconocía, no sabía qué producir e incluso me sentía extrañe en mi cuerpe. Sentarme a entenderme y reflexionarme y trabajarme para sanar es una de las cosas que cuido a diario para no perderme. Decidí sentarme para hacer una de las cosas que más respeto y admiro en esta vida, el barro; y comezaron a salir esas vasijas. Como ahora todo es virtual, verbalizé el estado emocional en qu eme encontraba mientras hacía las piezas en el post porque como dije en otro: “se vale ser intense, vulnerable y brave a la vez”. Lo hice para ver cómo surgía, cómo otras personas se sentían y si les había pasado igual y para un poco de apoyo moral (jajaja). La cerámica es uno de los tesoros escondidos que llevo y que casi nunca me atrevo a mostrar públicamente.

 Hablo de que los miedos cambian con el tiempo porque como dije anteriormente, los proceso de sanación, no son lineales. Hay un tiempo en los que te sientes empoderadx con las cosas que estás haciendo, con tu alrededor y contigo mismx.; como hay tiempos que cosas te triguerean y vuelvas a recaer en esas tristezas que creías superadas. Igual, pienso que todxs lo trabajamos de diferentes maneras y hay personas que las sanan más rápido y hay quienes no. Y eso está bien, porque todos los procesos y las experiencias son distintas y no hay nada de malo, recaer en algo que creías superado hace dos años (por poner un ejemplo).

As for that post, I was having some intense days where I did not recognize myself, I did not know what to produce, and I even felt strange in my body. Sitting down to understand myself and reflect and work with it to heal is something that I take care of every day, so as not to lose myself. I decided to sit down to do one of the things that I respect and admire most in this life, the mud; and those vessels began to come out.

As now everything is virtual, I verbalized the my emotional while doing the pieces because as I said: “it is worth being intense, vulnerable and brave at the same time”. I did it to see how it arose, how other people felt and if the same happened to them -- and for a little moral support (hahaha). Ceramic is one of the hidden treasures I carry that I hardly ever dare to show publicly. 

I'm talking about fears changing over time because, as I said before, the healing processes are not linear. There is a time when you feel empowered with the things you are doing, with your surroundings and with yourself; as there are times when things brighten you and you relapse back into those sadnesses that you thought you had overcome. Likewise, I think we all work it in different ways and there are people who heal themselves faster and people who do not. And that is fine, because all processes and experiences are different, and there is nothing wrong with relapsing into something that you thought you overcame two years ago (for example).

5. In your artist’s statement for the Babel Masks you write, “Through their work, they try to touch the political to make visible they/them experiences as a brown-skinned feminized body in a colony in the Caribbean.” Can you say more about the ways you do this?

Realmente es un tema un poco complicado para mí. Pues no me puedo definir como una persona negra porque no soy visiblemente negra ni como una persona blanca porque evidentemente no soy blanca. So, eso ha creado muchos problemas de identidad en mi ser y no dudo que muchxs en esta colonia anden en la misma posición que yo. Ahora mismo, navego por definirme afro-descendiente un poco para reclamar también mi negritud, pero también entendiendo y asumiendo mis privelegios frente a otras personas que han tenido más expererinecias en cuanto a la racialización y negritud para no apropiarme ni invalidarles.

It really is a bit of a complicated topic for me. Well, I cannot define myself as a black person because I am not visibly black or as a white person because obviously, I am not white. So, that has created many identity problems in my being, and I do not doubt that many in this colony are in the same position as me. Right now, I am navigating defining myself a bit of Afro-descendant to also claim my blackness, but also understanding and assuming my privileges in front of other people who have had more experiences in terms of racialization and blackness so as not to appropriate or invalidate them.

6. Also in your artist’s statement, you write, “Through their work in ceramics, embroidery and bio-plastics, they seek an alternate form of sustainable living.” Can you describe how it is to pursue a habitation and an artistic practice that remains committed to these goals? Was there a time when you used other materials and chose to make the change to sustainability? What was that transition like?

Es un poco cuesta arriba mantenerse en esas expectativas de formas de vivir porque vivimos en un sistema de constante consumo. Pero se puede hacer. Yo lo que he hecho en el camino ha sido reciclar cuantos materiales me sobren para poder crear arte de mis propios “desperdicios” o recibir donacioes de personas que estén botando cosas y así. Pues realmente yo empecé trabajando con la elaboración de títeres y máscara en papel maché, que no tenía muchos desperdicios. Pero si tenía una preocupación en cuanto a la cantidad de retazos de tela e hilos que desperdiciaba. Empecé a comentarlo con una amiga bien querida de cómo podíamos hacer cambios sustentables en nuestros procesos artísticos y ahí fue cuando me sumergí en el mundo de la biofabricación.

It is a bit uphill to keep up with the expectations around this way of living, because we live in a system of constant consumption. But it can be done. What I have done along the way has been to recycle whatever materials I have left over in order to create art from my own "waste". Or I receive donations from people who are throwing things away, and so on. Well, I really started working with the making of papier-mâché puppets and masks, which doesn’t leave much waste. But I did have a concern about the amount of fabric and thread I wasted. So I started talking about it with a dear friend about how we could make sustainable changes in our artistic processes, and that's when I immersed myself in the world of biofabrication.

7. Of the mask you created for The Babel Masks, you write, “The bones are a call to remembrance to stop, once and for all, the disappearance of the knowledge of what our ancestors suffered; the same which they would also impose on us.” How does one rescue things which may have already disappeared? Does the question then turn to resurrection or refiguration? Can you talk a bit more about this?

Puedo decir que es un poco de las dos cosas, resurreción y refiguración. Pero nuestra historia no ha desaparecido, solo hay que buscar en los sitios adecuados el tipo de información que buscamos y queremos saber. Se ha invisibilizado y tergiversado nuestra historia para hacerla ver más bonita. Pero nunca fue bonita y nunca lo ha sido. Siguen tratando de invisibilizar nuestras experiencias. Mencioné que también puede ser refiguración o resurección porque todxs lxs cuerpxs cargan historias, y a mí me interesa mucho cómo es que cada cuál saca esas historias y las transforma y para mí eso pura historia ancestral.

I can say that it is a bit of both, resurrection and refiguration. But our history has not disappeared; we just have to look in the right places for the information we are seeking to know. Our story has been made invisible and distorted to make it look more beautiful. But it was never pretty, and it never has been. They keep trying to make our experiences invisible. I mentioned that it can also be refiguration or resurrection because all bodies carry stories, and I am very interested in how each one takes those stories and transforms them and for me that is pure ancestral history.

8. Can you share something about the community you have found as you work in an ethic of sustainability and of remembering and rescuing the knowledge of ancestors? What kinds of support – emotional, substantial, artistic – have you found in your community?

He recibido mucho más apoyo de lo que pensaba y muchxs personxs interesadas en mi trabajo de sustentabilidad con los materiales.

En cuanto a mi trabajo con los huesos, pues a veces es difícil llegar a un público o una comunidad en específico y no provocar cosas en otras personas, pero también eso es lo que busco. Incomodar, porque es incómodo todas estas cuestiones de la muerte, de revivir a través de los huesos, de tocar animales muertos, etc. Y no siempre son bunas críticas las que recibo, pero que igual me encantan.

Y a rescatar el conocimiento de mis ancestros, creo que la comunidad está bien puesta para eso desde hace mucho tiempo. No ando sola en el proceso de visibilizar nuestra historia, pues estamos hartxs de que nos borren del mapa. Y tener ese tipo de apoyo emocional, para visibilizar a través de mi arte es mucho con demasiado. Es lo que me permite levantarme día a día y continuar. 

I have received much more support than I thought; many people interested in my ethic of sustainability work with materials.

As for my work with bones, sometimes it is difficult to reach a specific audience or community and not provoke other people, but that is also what I am looking for; discomfort, because it is uncomfortable, all these topics of death, of reviving through the bones, of touching dead animals, etc. And I don't always get good critics, but I still love them.

And to rescue the knowledge of my ancestors, I believe that the community has been well placed for that for a long time. I am not alone in the process of making our history visible, because we are tired of being erased from the map. And having that kind of emotional support, to make visible through my art is a lot with too much. It is what allows me to get up day by day and continue.

9. What attracted you to submit your work to The Babel Masks?

Honestamente, una amiga bien cercana que amo mucho y me ha apoyado en todo conoce a Quintín. Pues Quintín le hizo el acercamiento sobre la exposición y que le dijera a otras personas y me dijo. Peroooooooo, realmente llevo trabajando con títeres y máscaras desde que comencé en el arte hasta hoy día y me interesó mucho que de la pandemia surgiera esta expo internacional con el enfoque en máscaras. So, ¿qué mejor que mi primera exposición, junto a artistas de todo el mundo, mostrando una de mis máscaras de huesos?

Honestly, a very close friend that I love very much, who has supported me in everything, knows Quintín. Well, he approached her about the exhibition and to spread the voice and she told me. Buuuuuut, I have really been working with puppets and masks since I started in the art world until today and I was very interested that this international expo with the focus on masks emerged from the pandemic. It was going to be my first exhibition if they selected my work. So, what better than my first exhibition, together with artists from all over the world, showing one of my bone masks?

10. If you had advice for an artist just starting out in their practice, what advice would you give? What do you wish you had known when you were beginning your life as an artist?

Le diría que no tenga miedo a ser quién es, primero que todo. Y que no tenga miedo de dedicarse al arte y vivir del arte. Que el capitalismo es una mierda y que no importa cuán pobre estés, después que lo que estés haciendo te haga feliz, todo lo demás es añadidura. Es pura cosa extra.

Hubiese querido entenderme desde el principio y aceptar que los procesos son disitintos para todo el mundo. Que no producir por un año, no está mal. Y que las inspiraciones vienen de todas partes. Que se vale coger algo y transformarlo.

I would tell you not to be afraid to be who you are, first of all. And don't be afraid to dedicate yourself to art and live off art. That capitalism sucks and that no matter how much money you have in your account, if what you're doing makes you happy, everything else is added to that. They are purely extra things. 

I would have liked to understand myself from the beginning and accept that processes are different for everyone. That not producing for a year is not bad, and that inspirations come from everywhere. That it is worth taking something and transforming it.