The best works of art tell an interesting story while also intriguing their viewers. They captivate the imagination and inspire active pondering of their intricate characters, settings, themes, and meanings. The Puerto Rican Identity Project, a collection by conceptual artist Lillian Mulero, does exactly that.
“It took me places [that] I wasn’t expecting to go,” said Richard Larich, a resident of Glen Falls.
Mulero created The Puerto Rican Identity Project for the Union’s Shelnutt Gallery in honor of Latino Heritage Month. Her collection, containing pieces as diverse as photos of Puerto Rican graduates and pictures of brilliantly colored butterflies, will be on display until October 15.
“It’s very interesting. It completely questions your stereotypes—your stereotypical view of what is a Puerto Rican,” said Adrian Clarke, a resident of Albany.
Mulero’s pieces present both a rich visual history of her youth as a Puerto Rican girl growing up in Brooklyn and a personification of the Puerto Rican culture. “What I find very interesting is that of [the] interaction between people’s feelings and the artist’s family ... The pieces are very intimate,” said Albany resident Falian Falega.
Mulero, a child of two Puerto Rican parents, grew up facing tough prejudice from both blacks and whites for her Latino heritage. She was viewed as a “white girl from a black perspective and another by white people ... It was a difficult situation to be in.”
Perhaps the most interesting pieces in her collection are the pictures of soap, which illustrates the striking differences between American capitalism and Puerto Rican industry. Simple Puerto Rican soap provides the support for U.S. products whose image seems to reject the idea that “beauty is skin deep,” said Mulero.
Her art reflects the influence of modern conceptual artists. Creating art is important to Mulero because “it makes the visual an idea or theory ... I like the idea more than the craft,” said Mulero.
Mulero received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts from SUNY-Albany in 1983, and has resided in Albany since then. Her pieces have been displayed at such well-known galleries as the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the New Langdon Arts Center in San Francisco.
This past year Mulero was selected to create the 30-foot sculpture that hangs in memorial of the events of September 11 at the Albany International Airport. She created the sculpture so it could incorporate life-size doves created by New York State children out of colored paper. “It was a wonderful opportunity,” said Mulero.
“As an artist, it is my role to focus and frame, make something out of nothing, juxtapose, collaborate, extrapolate, and amuse the public with seeing and remembering,” she wrote in her statement for The Puerto Rican Identity Project.
