West Side Story Upside Down, Backwards, Sideways and Out of Focus (La Maleta de Futriaco Martínez)

Object Details

Artist

ADÁL, born Utuado, Puerto Rico 1948

Exhibition Label

ADÁL merged snippets of West Side Story, the classic 1961 film that widely introduced stereotypes of Puerto Ricans into American popular culture, with documentary footage of Puerto Ricans in New York, readings of Nuyorican poetry by Pedro Pietri, and the music of Tito Puente and Brenda Feliciano. By slowing down, rewinding, and blurring the film footage and contaminating its narrative and soundtrack, ADÁL disrupted the storyline and exposed its social-political omissions. Embedded in a humble suitcase, the video also sheds light on the social conditions that propelled Puerto Rican migration to the mainland and partially inspired the film.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

Copyright

© 2002, ADÁL

2002

Object number

2013.20

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Media Arts

Medium

suitcase, flat-screen LCD monitor, single-channel digital video, color, sound; 12:51 minutes

Dimensions

14 x 20 x 7 in. (35.6 x 50.8 x 17.8 cm)

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Time-Based Media Art

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Topic

Object\other\luggage

Record ID

saam_2013.20

Usage of Metadata (Object Detail Text)

Not determined

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7213e663b-8e6f-4d81-a34f-3b93ff4a83e2