Two Citizens of Utopia
Ibrahim Miranda and Douglas Pérez
July through October 2012
![Ibrahim Miranda, from the series Mapas, 2008-2012. [Image Description: 5 horizontal rows of colorful woodblock prints, with varying images alluding to islands including palm trees, ocean currents, and maps.]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bb3c259e666696f13768624/1541797795807-P0VG3VUQ5RB7ZJ9UEZMX/Detail_Miranda.jpg)
Ibrahim Miranda, from the series Mapas, 2008-2012. [Image Description: 5 horizontal rows of colorful woodblock prints, with varying images alluding to islands including palm trees, ocean currents, and maps.]
Douglas Pérez, Retiro/Retreat, 2010. [Image Description: A painting depicts an elevated highway in an urban environment. In the foreground, two lanes diverge and snake outwards from the bottom left of the image. Walking along the road are various creatures, ranging from single-celled organisms and dinosaurs, to humans and dogs. In the background is a city, with a large, domed white building at the center surrounded by palm trees.]
Do we know our country? Our city? As children, our impressions are etched from experience – we learn “by heart” the profile of our coasts, the sinuous lines of our rivers, the layout of our streets and avenues, the façades of our buildings. The familiarity of our journey is formed from consistency. And just as a detour reveals a new path, Ibrahim Miranda and Douglas Pérez explode our naïve confidence and divert our gaze to unusual geographies.
Thomas More’s Utopia was a work of satire, contrasting the corruption of English society with the marvels that took place on his imaginary island. Flooding our eyes with overflowing depictions of their native city and country, Ibrahim Miranda and Douglas Pérez offer a previously unimagined Havana, Cuba. Miranda blends cultural imagery such as the pottery used in Afro-Cuban rituals and classical Greek sculpture while Perez’s frenetic cityscapes include cranes amidst the Havana skyline, an indication of a new, yet stalled economy. In essence, these cultural geographies depict a revised historical account of the island and the uncertainty of its future.
Installation views of “Two Citizens of Utopia” at The 8th Floor, July 2012. Photos by Bill Orcutt. Courtesy of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.