Limbo: The Collective Unconscious

Study, 2013. Oil on canvas, 14 in × 12 in.

Athena, 2013. Oil on canvas, 14 in × 12 in.

Dyonisus, 2013. Oil on canvas, 12 in × 12 in.

The challenge is to define the sum of two histories, and reconcile each its origin and becoming. Having lost her native cultural source, the colonized is bound to embrace the culture of the “Mother Country.” This dual self-perception engenders an unconscious mental training, fueled by society’s cultural representations of black people, which generate an inferiority complex that transcends time.

In this work, all the elements of iconography are placed to identify Dionysus and Athena. Athena features the recognizable attributes commonly associated with her: the helmet, the owl, and the spear. She is known to be the Goddess of heroic endeavors and stands for numerous concepts and qualities such as courage, inspiration, law, justice, and warfare conducted with fairness. She appears wary but unafraid, cautiously defying the snakes. Showing no signs of frailty, she leans in, as if to grasp the meaning of this Pandora’s box. There is a deliberate ambiguity as to what is in the box. According to the myth, Medusa’s head (the hair of which is made of venomous snakes) is delivered by Perseus as a gift to Athena. It could also be her assumed son Erichthonius—half child and half snake— whom she raised in secret and placed in a case. Athena seemingly wants to find out whether it is a symbol of life or death.

The idiosyncrasies of Dionysus—the grapes, the hammer, the tiger—are in line with the relief in the background. On the upper left corner, Dionysus is placed above the head of our central character, aloft over the tiger cub resting casually on her lap—a tandem of two felines pulling the chariot, as Silenus is leading the procession. The music played by the figure behind the curtain is bewitching. It slides the lounger into torpor, a sleep of death. In this very representation, Dionysus seems to surrender to fate, whatever the outcome. As the last drop of wine hits the ground, the tamed wild animal and she are looking outside the confinement of the frame, seeking an answer.

Lying in the gap between catastrophe and recovery, these two personas have paradoxes and narratives that can be related to the desolation propagated by colonialism and its impact on the Caribbean archipelago. The unusual representation of these mythical characters creates a latent uneasiness on both sides of the spectrum: the colonized imitating the culture of the colonizer but hesitant to fully appropriate it, and the colonizer, who, upon seeing such representation, projects an uncomfortable aura, not understanding the unconventional status, linking it to the ready-made narrative he helped create, which is instilled and fixed in its consciousness.

Using myths to readdress the position of black people in history and portraying powerful characters means redefining not only how black people have been conditioned to exist but also how black people have been conditioned to reflect upon themselves. In accepting the ravaged part of one’s self, resilience lends assistance to a formidable awakening: one must have internal security, self-esteem, and self-effectiveness. These can be attained by rebooting one’s mind, and by establishing a different visual landscape devoid of servile narrative.

As Sumner Redstone said, “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.”