Amarise Deán Santo
Nene Sin Patria (Our mother's hands became our homes)
September 3 - October 1, 2022
Blue Sky is pleased to announce 2021 En Foco Fellowship Exhibition, Nene Sin Patria (Our mother's hands became our homes) by Amarise Deán Santo (formerly Amarise Carreras).
Amarise Deán Santo is a photo based performance artist, utilizing photography for both documenting and observing while engaging in performative conversations. The results are images of quotidian moments and narratives that portal history, ancestry, altars and still lifes that are alive. The performative aspect is referential directly to a gentle and deeply personal connection to Amarise’s bisabuela and the Boricua womxn. This has become a focal aspect of Amarise’s investigation into Santeria.
Santeria is a practice done by Boricua womxn who collect objects that symbolize and represent a greater physical or metaphysical form. A shell can reference the island. An idol can reference an ancestor or deity. Upon inspection and study, each item narrates a lost history that invites a displaced body; queer, diasporic and migrant, to enter. These images document survival.
In a similar manner, altars are places where objects are collected to reference personal narratives. Engaging the self to the narratives of past and present ancestors. By means of object, color, and composition these images are a window to view a place of reflection and into the divine feminine where they are free to fall in love, heal and feel protected.
In-Person Artist Talk, Saturday, September 3
Amarise Deán Santo (they/them/elle) (Puerto Rican American, b. 1995) is a photo based performance artist, utilizing photography for both documenting and observing while engaging in performative conversations. The results are images of quotidian moments and narratives that portal history, ancestry, altars and still lifes that are alive. The performative aspect is referential directly to a gentle and deeply personal connection to the Boricua women that raised them, and their passed down knowledge, medicine, and traditions.
There is a long history of collecting objects that symbolize and represent a greater form, lineages, and sentiments. Upon inspection and study, each item narrates a space that invites the body; trans, queer, diasporic and migrant, to enter. These altars and images document survival while serving as a means to build new worlds and possibilities.
Amarise received their BFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. They are currently published in Aperture Magazine, Nueva Luz, and have shown in galleries such as Candela Gallery, Side x Side Contemporary, and Transmitter.