ni la hora qué es [not even the time], 2019
Wood, acrylic, plastic, and polyurethane glaze
15″ x 8″
In Puerto Rico there is a turn of phrase for when situations become too confusing or too complex for elaboration; “no se sabe ni la hora que es” or “you cannot even tell the time.”
Since the historic resignation of Governor Roselló on the summer of 2019, the Puerto Rican people on the island (and the US) have entered uncharted political waters, looking at what more and more resembles a tropical version of a morality play from the Middle Ages.
In my studio, I keep a wooden clock with a Puerto Rican flag painted and glazed on its face, shaped like the largest island of the archipelago, a kitsch object that I purchased on one of my trips there. Due to the current uncertainty and confusion about the political future of the Caribbean island state and US colony, I thought it fitting to remove the clock mechanism and keep the face as a ready-made object that reifies the meaning of the aforementioned popular expression.