FROM THE SERIES “ON THE OTHER HAND” BY ANTONIA WRIGHT

Reaching the Other Side
Antonia Wright Draws You Into a New Perspective

By Angie Hargot

Antonia Wright is a Cuban-American Miami native whose work with the mediums of photography, performance art, and poetry  form social experiments that seek to challenge the viewer by drawing them into a fresh perspective on ‘the normal.’

She received her master’s degree in poetry from the New School University and is a graduate of the International Center of Photography’s General Studies Program.

Wright’s newest exhibition explores the human experience in the constructed and natural worlds, and human interaction with surroundings. In “A Great Disorder is an Order,” she presents a series of photographs, “On the Other Hand,” video, and installation along with fellow artist Ruben Millares, who will present a multisensory installation of mobile sculptures and ink drawings. The exhibition opens Saturday, March 20.

In addition to serving as the assistant to the curator at The Margulies Collection, Wright has exhibited in group shows such as Amnesty International’s showcase of Cuban-American artists in Los Angeles and, recently, curated The Keys Project, in which she collects old keys along with portraits of their former owners.
“Now I like to think,” Wright says on the project’s website, “that for every key I take, I’m opening another door or, in an ideal world, we would not need keys…”

How did it all begin?
My first creative love was writing. I’ve always been that girl with a journal. I wrote short stories for years, they became shorter and shorter, and then I switched to poetry. I got an MFA in poetry and wanted to take photos for my manuscript. Eventually a single image seemed the most poignant way to communicate and I threw myself into photography. I worked for a ton of photographers. Then I only made video art for a while. Performance art came naturally, then installation work. In this next show, I am showing my first sculptures! It is very exciting. I think now I am finally at the place where all the mediums are coming together...at least let’s hope so!

Tell us about “A Great Disorder is an Order” and “On the Other Hand.”
The exhibition, ‘A Great Disorder is an Order’  is a show I am having with the lovely artist Ruben Millares, and the opening is this Saturday night. The line is taken from a Wallace Steven’s poem, and is about balance on many different levels. Much of our work is about balance — with the environment, in social structures, as artists — and we thought this was a beautiful and fitting title. Ruben will be showing mobiles, ink drawings, and videos, and I will also be showing sculpture and my new series of photographs, ‘On the Other Hand.’ In the photos, I recreate the same neutral gesture — a hand reaching — and place it in many different landscapes. The hand reaches out of the ocean, a pile of garbage, along a satellite, and becomes a funny, or sad, plea to the viewer to enter the photograph and interpret as they wish.

Are you still collecting keys? How many still turn up?
I collect keys all the time! They turn up everywhere and are just as interesting as the first one I saw. For the new series, I am photographing often under-looked at parts of Miami, and I went to ‘tent city’ to take photographs. It is this very bizarre place under the Julia Tuttle Causeway where the state placed sex offenders after they were released from jail. While photographing there, in the middle of these make-shift temporary ‘houses,’ I found a key! Of all places... the irony was overwhelming.

How has the art market been treating you as of late?
The art market has been treating me fine. People still respond positively to the work, which is nice. These times have allowed me to think more deeply, though, into the ‘business of art.’ When I was a poet people were very confused as to why I chose to make the least lucrative type of art. ‘What do you do?’ is a very American question, and to answer “poet” is about the least Capitalist response you can give. I just finished making a piece called, The Business of Poetry. I took a typical men’s briefcase and filled it with journals. It is a poet’s office. I also just made a work called, “Why I Am Not a Painter,” inspired by the Frank O’Hara poem. I coated 56 pieces of typing paper in different colors and strung them back and forth across a room. Nowadays, I seem to make almost every type of art except painting yet, the question I get the most when I say I am an artist is, ‘what kind of painting do you do?’  I guess these times have allowed me to explore the notion of ‘working artist’ and what it means today.

What’s the most flattering comment you’ve ever received about your work?
I really like when children like the work, and my grandmother, they are tougher audiences than you would think.

The most insulting?
I used to have a studio in Little Haiti and we were having a party. A man walked into my space and looked at all of my work. At the end, after careful study, he pointed to a post card above my desk and said, ‘I like this. You should make more work like this.’ It was a flyer for a show someone gave me. I liked the image and tacked it up. It wasn’t even one my pieces.

How does art change people?
Art changes people on such a profound level — it is hard to begin. I could never imagine my life without it. It is what I do, what I think about, read about, how I spend my time. It makes the world a pleasant place to live in. I work at the Margulies Collection, a private art collection in Wynwood, and I see people enter the warehouse rushed, anxious, sometimes rude, but when they leave they stop by the office a say thank you a million times. They have huge smiles on their faces. Consciously or unconsciously, they are changed. Their souls have grown.

“A Great Disorder is an Order” opens with a reception on Saturday, March 20 from 7 to 10 p.m. at 777 Studio Gallery, 166 Alhambra Circle, in Coral Gables. See more of Antonia Wright’s work at thekeysproject.com and at 924 Lincoln Road, Studio 110.

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