FACES FROM THE BLOCK - THE BRAZILIAN - BRONX CONNECTION

SOUTH BRONX, 8 JULY, 2015

 

 

Faces from the Block exhibit was displayed at Bronxart Space, at South Bronx, during the period of 8 july till 8 august. There were exhibited 15 original Acrylic paintings ( 7 paintings by Ananda and 8 paintings by Izolag) and 10 drawings by izolag, all based on Ricky Flores exclusive and unrevealed photographys from South Bronx at 80's.  Also 15 unrevealed photos took by Ricky from that time. 

 

Below the registry made by Ricky Flores at the opening at Gallery and The testament of Ricky Flores and Joseph Rios about the Show and project. . Special thanks to BronxArtspace team for the support. 

 

 

 

 

Words by Ricky Flores:

 

" Faces from the Block is an exhibition featuring the work of Ananda Nahu and Izolag Armeidah based on my photos of my friends from The Block during the 1980's.

The journey is an amazing one for us and deeply personal for me. We in the Seis Del Sur believe in serendipity, it helped pull our original show together and for this show it started with the simple postcard sent home to my mother by my father, a Merchant Marine who was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the early 60's. That, card and another was the only evidence of the life he had lived and it was the beginning of my fascination with photography and it's ability to transport you and wonder about the people and places shown within. Fast forward to 2008 at the rising wave of social media and my growing fascination with Flickr in sharing photos, allowed the Brazilians to find my work and be transported back in time and be captivate by the life on the Block.

Everything they selected to paint, illustrate or to create murals were selected by them with no influence by me whatsoever. The startling connections re-created in work and the import that they have had in my life is simply amazing to me.

Across one room, two ex-lovers occupy their own wall. Massive murals taking on god like dimensions, one stark, surrounded by what seems to be ancient script and the other other lovingly adorned dominated the space leaving you with the feeling that you just walked into some ancient temple. 

Throughout the space, faces from the past fill the room transporting me back and reigniting forgotten memories. The Brazilians, inadvertently, also stumbled into the deep veined sense of humour of our youth through their depictions of my photos. I couldn't help but laugh in anticipation of the reactions of the people in the images. I wasn't disappointed. "

 

 

Words by joseph Rios, the main character painted by izolag on his Installation at Exhibit:

 

" The show at Bronx Arts Space was awesome. Ricky FLores' work is very familiar to most Bronxites; so, when two Brazilian artists put their touch on some of Ricky's work, it added a new twist. The works ofIzolag Armeidah and Ananda Nahu gave a new flavor to Ricky's photography. I was somewhat taken aback by a twenty-foot tall mural of myself, when I first walked in to the gallery. That particular shot was taken exactly 31 years ago in the heart of the South Bronx (39 playground--which is occupied these days by the "new" PAL).

 

I was approached by some producers from Bronxnet for an interview. (This too, caught me off guard)...I was asked how I felt when I first saw the imposing image--it takes up a whole wall! At first, I didn't really know what to say. So I said the first thing to come to mind--"It felt weird." But, then I calmed down a bit and started to reflect on those days. I told the reporter that the murals and Flores' photo-documentation of the south bronx in the late seventies and throughout the '80's, is a testament to the resilience of our peeps, who showed that one can be surrounded with absolute blight-nothingness-and make something of oneself.

 

Ricky did it. Macho (Ramon Franco) did it. Wiggles (Steffan Clemente) did it. As did many more. And they did it in unique style, I might add. However, there are many souls that didn't make it out of the hood. To those of you looking down on Ricky's tireless efforts to keep our story alive, this one's for you...RIP: Carlos Feliciano; RIP: Dennis Vasquez; RIP: Armando; RIP: Oscar Pabon' RIP: George Centeno; RIP: Maya; RIP: Ivette Rios; RIP: Watu'..

 

I also wanted to mention that I feel honored to have been the subject of one of Mr. Armeidah's works. According to Ricky, he had nothing to do with the selection process, and completely left the curating up to the other two artists. The two giant murals on opposite sides of the gallery are of me, and the other, of Carmen AKA "Ronnie" who was my girlfriend for awhile in those days. Weird! Both of the artists, Izolag and Ananda Nahu' didn't know that tidbit of info. They never even met me until yesterday...weird. ...and Thank You. "

 

 

 

Photos by Ricky Flores