Pieces of yellow, wooden police barricades are broken and reshaped into a star, or una estrella in Spanish.
Artist Karlo Andrei Ibarra took the barricades from 2014 protests in Puerto Rico, his homeland, when they were fighting for same-sex marriage there at the time.
The life-size figure hangs at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum as part of an exhibit looking into the everyday lives of Latin Americans.
WUSF's Jessica Meszaros spoke to Ibarra at the gallery in front of his star, which will be on display until March 8.
Can you talk about the double meaning of “estrella”?
Yeah, estrellar is a slang in Spanish for "crush." Estrellar. At the same time, the slogan for 2014 was "Puerto Rico is la estrella," that means like a “star island.”
So, they are trying to develop this slogan in order to insert Puerto Rico as first country or first island for tourism destination, instead of visiting Cuba or Dominican Republic. But, you know, the idea was try to insert the slogan but in very violent elements.
How do you feel about your work, especially this one being displayed in Florida, where there is a large Puerto Rican population — a lot of people came here after Hurricane Maria?
From 2016 until now, the present, we have a huge exodus and more thinking when we passed Hurricane Maria, so it's something that's still going on.
So, I think that a piece like this that resounds a lot, has a lot of meaning, and it's powerful ... It's not just Puerto Ricans, no? I talk about Puerto Rico but also try to think in the Caribbean community.
And how, how are things in Puerto Rico for you and for your family, for your loved ones, right now?
Well, Puerto Rico, in terms of our community, are doing great. In terms of the daily life, it's not that great. A lot of things are increasing, but the salary is not enough.
Like inflation?
Inflation, the policies. Now, with the Trump era, you know that affects a lot of Puerto Rico, because, you know where we are a commonwealth, and he decides about us.
So, their policies are doing bad. Like, for example, we live all our life with Dominican [people] … It's like our brothers, but now, with the ICE and these police, they are taking immigrants also in Puerto Rico.
And for me, I feel uncomfortable with that, sad and the first time living that. For example, my wife is from Mexico, so I live that in a personal way.
Is there anything that you hope people walk away with after they see your art?
When I do projects, of course, I have my own appreciation, or my idea behind. But if you ask me what you want to get from the spectators, that sometimes we read the objects in just one way.
If you go to … a hardware store and you get that nail, we … learn that nail is for go to the wall. And for me, the art is a way to change that mind and open a way more open wide in order to read the objects in different ways, in order to understand life or daily life.
