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, 14207 in. (35.650.817.8 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
14207 in. (35.650.817.8 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
Keywords
  • Object — other — luggage
Object Number
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

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