EPISTLES 

 Multimedia artist Yamcy Leslie

A woman in a red strapless dress is stopping foot traffic on
Loiza Street and she's doing it in a cinematic way: a short video film
playing in the window of a flower store, Fioridella.

The woman is Puerto Rican artist Yamcy Leslie and the video
takes center stage in her installation Epístolas (Epistles). So
striking is her presence that after stopping to take a closer look
at the window display, one is immediately drawn to this strong
featured, dark-haired young woman as she delivers a strangely
hypnotic performance that focuses entirely around her face and
her reactions while carrying out a series of gestures that seem
to implicitly comment on womanhood and aspects related to
the female gender: femininity, sexuality, resilience, sorrow,
empowerment, love.

The video has the virtue of a silent movie and the intensity of
a short story.

It begins simply with Leslie standing against a black background
and looking straight ahead into the distance and slowly builds up
to evoke increasingly more intense emotions until reverting back
to its original calm. The 10- minute video is filmed in a direct,
conventional manner. It is pretty straightforward, in fact, except
for one disquieting effect: Every so often the image suddenly jerks,
as if it were inside a cocktail shaker, and then a double and
triple image of the woman appears onscreen. This lasts
momentarily; then, the picture reverts to normal.

The intriguing scenario that plays out across Fioridella's large
street-level window consists of a few but thoughtfully selected props:
piles of white papers, many of them blank while others are covered
with different genres of writing -- manuscript pages, journal entries,
love letters -- and loosely spread out or crumpled up as part of the
mise en scene; old tomes; two silver candelabra, a vase with a long
stemmed lilly, and a TV set that plays the video in a continuous
loop. (The TV set at Fioridella is occasionally turned off. If that is
the case, go inside and ask the store owner to please turn it on for you).

When asked to comment on the video, Leslie said it was inspired
by Lucrezia Tornabuoni, a 16th century Italian noblewoman who
married into the Medici family to become an influential woman
and gifted poet.

"She greatly influenced writers and artists like Botticelli.
Nevertheless, her value as an artist was almost forgotten.
Some time ago, they discovered 49 of her letters in which she
reflected on the life of women in her time, her passions and her faith."

"There are emotional needs that, with the passage of time, possibly
remain the same and are often frustrated by social patterns
and even though centuries have passed, they still torture our
conscience," Leslie commented through an e-mail. This is
her first effort with this type of media, said the artist, who is
also showing her work at the Muestra Nacional de Arte at
the Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española in Old San Juan.

Given its aim to pay homage to a woman of a different age whose
aspirations to express herself mirror those of contemporary women,
the project also incorporated other women's contributions.  To
that end, Leslie invited family members and friends to contribute
their own "epistles" which they wrote on the papers that are strewn
across the installation.

"They represent thoughts and ideas that are there, that we shun,
retain, discard," Leslie wrote in her e-mail, musing that on opening
night there were people still writing down their thoughts on paper
so they could be part of the window display.

Epístolas is a terrific installation. Don't miss it.

FIORIDELLA, #1604 Calle Loiza (next to Bebo's Café)
787.728.4888

Photography by Dimitra Doupi

Every man's memory
is his private literature.

Aldous Huxley

A SIMPLE TIP:

A fresh lemon is all you need to whiten linens and other
items that have lost their luster.

Here's how: Place a pot of water on the stovetop, add slices
of fresh lemon, bring to a boil, turn off the heat. Next, add
the linens and soak for an hour. Launder as usual and hang
out in the sun to dry.

I live in the moment when I'm happy.

Edith Wharton, "The Age of Innocence"

Photo by Denise Blasor

☛Eye on Products:

Soap is something you use so frequently during the day that
most often one does not even pay attention to this common
item. Until you use One With Nature soap, that is.

Made with a vegetable base and without artificial colors,
fragrances or animal ingredients, these soaps are so
soothing and easy on the skin that they are a joy to use.
They have a lovely fragrance based on pure essential oils
and come in beautiful hues, which the company says
derive "from a blend of plant and naturally-occurring mineral
pigments found in the diverse climate zones of the Dead
Sea region."

A bar is $4.50 and lasts for weeks. Check out the website
for store locations near you, or to order online.

www.onewithnature.com

Artwork by Lorraine Blasor

I am certain of nothing but
 the holiness of the heart's
affections & the truth
of the imagination.

John Keats

© 2013 Lorraine Blasor all rights reserved☂