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IcerocketChannels: Contemporary ArtCubaWilliam Rasdell
IMA Staff visit Cuba with artist William Rasdell in preparation for the Star Studio Exhibition, 'African Roots in Cuban Soil.'
I first really became aware of this space... I was reading a book, I think it was by Tom Miller, called "Trading with the Enemy", and he stumbled upon this alley.
It was interesting, he had a friend in the States with the last name Hamel, and he was riding on the bus and he saw the sign and he got off the bus
so that he could go back home and tell his friend that he had visited his alley in Cuba. And he began to tell about the murals and the work
that Salvador was doing here. And shortly after that I had my first trip here. So, it was only natural
that I would want to come here and check out the space. That book was really quite influential in making Salvador known
and his work known...actually worldwide. This place has become like a shrine, this is like a Mecca for people who love Rumba, and people come here from
literally all over the world. So, I really feel privileged to have such an integral relationship with the goings on here. I have created a good deal
of art here, it's been a source of inspiration for my work. So I feel like this is family, this is a kindred place here for me.
My work, you know, I don't focus on the religion in my work, but in Cuba you can't separate
the religion from life. And it influences even the people who might be Baptists, who might be Catholic, who might be Seventh Day Adventists. You might very
well go home and look behind the door and there is Elegua, so it's just an integral part of life here. I didn't know it,
I did not identify it as such, but my lifestyle has always been Cuban. I have a laid back approach to life. I haven't owned
a wristwatch since I was eighteen years old. I just kind of, you know, go as I flow. And I enjoy that, it allows me to be creative in the ways that I feel
I need to. I could never keep a job, so this worked out very, very well for me; to be able to take control
of the direction of my life, the pace of my life, and the output of what I feel I was put here for. I really believe, you know,
that everyone has a purpose for being here, and I am so grateful that I found mine and it has given me the freedom to travel, to be totally who I am, who I want to be.
I view myself as a citizen of the world. I mean, I just happen to be of African decent, but I also happen to be of Native
American decent, I happen to be of Irish decent, I happen to be all those things, but I am first and foremost human. And while I sometimes resent it...
it is who I am.
You know for years, years I had the most difficult time accepting being human...
because it set such limitations. And I didn't want to be limited by my "humanness". So, it has been about transcending that in so many ways and that is why I think
I enjoy the freedom of what I do so much because it allows me to go beyond the limitations of most humans.
Well, we all exercise artistic creativity in just about everything that we do. In Western society
art has become such a...almost an elitist thing. In most indigenous culture, art is a part of function.
When you wake up in the morning and you decide to wear a blue shirt instead of a green one, that is artistic expression. The way you wear your hat, the way you carry yourself, that's all a part of artistic expression.
And being conscious of that allows you to, one, recognize it, and that has tremendous power. People are influenced, I mean
everyone knows about the elements and principles of design and how they can be utilized to motivate, to manipulate, to inspire. And having that level of consciousness
in even the smallest things that we do in life gives us power; we can influence people in very subliminal ways.
And that is artistic expression and that is power.
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