West Side Story Upside Down, Backwards, Sideways and Out of Focus (La Maleta de Futriaco Martínez)

Copied ADÁL, West Side Story Upside Down, Backwards, Sideways and Out of Focus (La Maleta de Futriaco Martínez), 2002, suitcase, flat-screen LCD monitor, single-channel digital video, color, sound; 12:51 minutes, 14 x 20 x 7 in. (35.6 x 50.8 x 17.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.20A-B, © 2002, ADÁL

Artwork Details

Title
West Side Story Upside Down, Backwards, Sideways and Out of Focus (La Maleta de Futriaco Martínez)
Artist
Date
2002
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
14 x 20 x 7 in. (35.6 x 50.8 x 17.8 cm)
Copyright
© 2002, ADÁL
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums
Mediums Description
suitcase, flat-screen LCD monitor, single-channel digital video, color, sound; 12:51 minutes
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Object — other — luggage
Digital Catalogue
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies
Object Number
2013.20A-B
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2013.20A-B

Artwork Description

ADÁL merged snippets of West Side Story, the classic 1961 film that widely introduced stereotypes of Puerto Ricans into American popular culture, with documentary footage of Puerto Ricans in New York, readings of Nuyorican poetry by Pedro Pietri, and the music of Tito Puente and Brenda Feliciano. By slowing down, rewinding, and blurring the film footage and contaminating its narrative and soundtrack, ADÁL disrupted the storyline and exposed its social-political omissions. Embedded in a humble suitcase, the video also sheds light on the social conditions that propelled Puerto Rican migration to the mainland and partially inspired the film.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013
Description in Spanish

ADÁL fusionó fragmentos de West Side Story, la película clásica de 1961 que diseminó ampliamente los estereotipos de los puertorriqueños en la cultura popular estadounidense, con filmaciones documentales de puertorriqueños en Nueva York, lecturas de poesía nuyorican por Pedro Pietri, y la música de Tito Puente y Brenda Feliciano. Al proyectar lentamente, devolver y desenfocar las imágenes de la película y contaminar su hilo narrativo y banda sonora, ADÁL alteró la trama y puso en relieve sus omisiones sociopolíticas. Empotrado en una humilde maleta, el video también revela las condiciones sociales que impulsaron la migración puertorriqueña hacia el continente e inspiraron parcialmente la película.

Nuestra América: la presencia latina en el arte estadounidense, 2013

Related Books

The cover of the publication Musical Thinking New Video Art & Sonic Strategies
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies 
Exploring the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music, the exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies features ten leading contemporary artists and the work.

Exhibitions

Media - 2011.12 - SAAM-2011.12_1 - 77591
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
October 25, 2013–March 2, 2014
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge.
Media - 2020.54.1 - SAAM-2020.54.1_2 - 139600
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies
June 23, 2023–January 28, 2024
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Musical Thinking explores the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music.