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Lusmerlin Captures Attention with The Uncatchable Ciguapa

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Lusmerlin’s The Uncatchable Ciguapa opens a portal to another world, a world in which ethereal mythical creatures exist and walk among us. Ciguapas are a part of Dominican folklore, described as having a female figure with long locks of hair that cover their body and backward facing feet. Due to the backward nature of their steps, they are almost impossible to follow, effectively rendering them uncatchable. 

In The Uncatchable Ciguapa, now on view at Nuestras Raices through October 28, 2024, Lusmerlin doesn’t hold our hand, but rather encourages us to dive into her world and see it through our own eyes. 

I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Lusmerlin about her life experiences, her relationship with her culture, her journey of personal growth, and femininity. We discussed how each of these facets has informed her artistic process, what she lovingly refers to as “controlled chaos”, and her storytelling in this powerful new exhibit.

Lusmerlin: I grew up on the north side of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. It’s a region that is very interesting. We [immigrants] experience this sense of reevaluating our identity and looking back to all the things that were normal for us [in order] to reshape the idea [of who we are], but also selecting what is closest to our heart. I am in that process, doing this installation that looks at the folklore of the Tainos that is full of things that some of us believed existed when we were kids. You believe that ‘El Cuco’ is going to come and take you if you’re not good, or that there’s a ‘Galipote’ shape shifting in the middle of the road. Then, when someone disappears sometimes you actually believe these things. The place where I’m from is very much like that. 

The folklore, mythology, and spirituality remains [alive] in those small towns. I’m in the process of exploring all these different layers of heritage: the things we believe, the stories that accompany us. I started with La Ciguapa because I’m really interested in femininity and the concept of the womanly body in space, my body in space, my body in different places, especially as it relates to immigration. 

Adriana Vélez: What does La Ciguapa mean to you as an artist and in the context of this exhibition?

Lusmerlin: For me, La Ciguapa comes back to the idea of who I am as a woman. I think it is very interesting coming to another place. I came to work in Carroll County and I worked in the mining industry, which is very male dominated. There were many behaviors that were expected or considered normal. [There were] cultural changes from what a woman does here to what a woman does there [in the Dominican Republic]. My artwork mirrored this tension. I had started envisioning performances where I was covered in hair, and it was about some of those standards of beauty and everything you are doing trying to meet certain standards to feel beautiful.

I’m a big hair person. When I grew up in the DR, having natural hair was not beautiful or professional. When I cut my hair and I let my [natural] hair out, people said very terrible things to me on the street or in certain circles. What I realized was that I was channeling a lot of this hair theme: hair covering the body, very long hair being dragged. In many of these ideas I was talking about myself and my body. The fact that La Ciguapa is covering herself with her hair was parallel to something that’s very important for me, that I’ve had a big journey of expression with. 

There was so much that through some conversations I realized, “Wow, I keep channeling this figure and I should feature La Ciguapa in an installation,” because the reference was so obvious at that point. Having La Ciguapa in an immersive installation is my way of conveying the experience and also of not seeing art in a 2D plane.

What was enticing about making an immersive installation is that it creates a world that feels and tells someone else: how do I experience my world, my identity, and being in my skin? How is this internal world communicated to someone else? 

My paintings are very big. I work with my hands and move my whole body. I want to put an experience in front of the viewer that feels equally otherworldly and magical so that you’re stepping into it, not just looking at something on the wall. You’re going to see fun, seduction, people fighting over La Ciguapa, the moment where she [La Ciguapa] dies when she’s finally caught. There’s verses, poetry, and energy. It’s beyond simply making a piece of art or telling you a tale; it’s seeing the entire chaos and discovery of creating. 

Installation view of The Uncatchable Ciguapa, Photo by Lusmerlin
Lusmerlin, photo by Desmond M. F. Johnson @picturesofusdotnet.
Lusmerlin, "Carried" from The Uncatchable Ciguapa, photo by Desmond M. F. Johnson @picturesofusdotnet.
I want people to go at it openly and just accept the feelings, the universe, and see how they’re touched by this mythical and ethereal feeling.
Lusmerlin

AV: A lot of the pieces in this exhibit are part of a collection titled “Intuism”. What is your interpretation of this word and what part does it play in your storytelling of The Uncatchable Ciguapa?

Lusmerlin: Sometimes when I travel, I’ll grab a different medium so that I keep creating. I decided this year to name this series of work with names that reflected the space they were created in and the energy they reflect. It is a series that looks primarily at purely abstract work. It does relate to intuition in that it is not work that you create by sketching or planning. It is work, I like to say, where you’re engaging with the painting. I talk to her and she talks to me, and if I pay enough attention and I listen to what she’s telling me, she tells me these words. Eventually I’m like, “Okay, you want me to put white on this spot from this side?” Then I go and I execute. I don’t necessarily make the painting be something. 

You learn what the painting needs to be, and then you work from there. You may start with strokes and marks that may or may not make sense, and the process informs what you do next. When you have been in art, you’re studying and reading. You’re actually educating your eye for composition, beauty, and technique. When you’re making, you’re engaging those compositional skills for abstract art, even though it doesn’t look like there is a technique. There is a technique, but this is not something that can be verbalized. So intuition narrows it down and allows you to tune into your own sense of composition.

AV: You spoke about how when you’re creating the piece, there’s a voice that guides you. Would you say that’s similar to when an artist is talking about their muse, or is it more so this mythological figure, La Ciguapa, that’s guiding you in telling her story?

Lusmerlin: Oh, that’s such a beautiful idea. I don’t know that I have worried about determining exactly where that voice comes from. I think the muse can exist, but I don’t think [my] art is that way. I work regularly and I believe in discipline, and then inspiration comes to you. But I do believe that there is, in our consciousness, more knowledge and a voice that we usually tune to.

I think our rational thoughts get in the way of these things because we start thinking, “What should I do to make this a perfect painting? I should make it look like this other painting. If I make it this way, it’s going to sell.” Once you remove all of that and you tune into that voice, somewhere in your consciousness you understand what needs to be done. 

 

Lusmerlin, Installation view of The Uncatchable Ciguapa, photo by Desmond M. F. Johnson @picturesofusdotnet.
Lusmerlin, Installation view of The Uncatchable Ciguapa, photo by Desmond M. F. Johnson @picturesofusdotnet.

AV: As people go into the exhibit, is there a way that you want them to read the story that you’re showing us?

Lusmerlin: I want them to experience it and I think that’s what I have seen. We had the first reception and it made my night when people would come back up and say, “Oh, I’ve never seen anything like this.” “This brings me back to my childhood.” Or, “I am feeling seduced almost. This could actually seduce me and take me away.” I want people to go at it openly and just accept the feelings, the universe, and see how they’re touched by this mythical and ethereal feeling that is created in the exhibition. And I think if people go in there openly to just experience, they can get that.

AV: What is next for you? Are you going to continue La Ciguapa’s story, or are you going to move on to another mythological creature? 

Lusmerlin: I am going to start peeling off the different layers and exploring these next topics. I have a lot of family. You know when you have family members who say, “so and so was this back then.” I’m going in November to the Dominican Republic to talk to everybody in the family on both sides, grab whatever they know about the stories, and try to dig in this direction. 

And I’m totally going to keep playing with installations, immersions, and different ways to hang things. I really want to challenge people to see art in many ways. On the wall, on the floor, from the ceiling. Curved or flat. I want the viewer to encounter art in unexpected places because making art happens in unexpected places for me. I’m going to keep expanding the playfulness of the installations, geometry, and presentation. I am excited to see how I expand on that. I feel like the possibilities are endless. 

AV: Is there anything that I didn’t touch on that you want to share with us?

Lusmerlin: There is a phrase that I use to describe my process, and that is controlled chaos. It goes with intuition, gathering all these approaches, techniques, experimentation, but ultimately, putting all of that energy and intention into a single frame that will be cohesive and we’ll work together.

The Uncatchable Ciguapa is an immersive introduction to Dominican culture and folklore through the eyes of Lusmerlin at Nuestras Raices through October 28. Lusmerlin’s experiences as an immigrant woman of color and how it relates to the mythological creature she carefully crafted for us are something many of us can relate to. This Hispanic Heritage Month, I find it most valuable to connect with my culture and the Hispanic community that is ever growing in Baltimore City. I invite you all to view this exhibit with open hearts and open arms, as you are most likely to encounter amazing, welcoming people I am proud to call my own.

Photos courtesy of Lusmerlin

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