Mixed media on porcelain-lacquered metal, from the series “Signs".  - Wells Fargo and Company Express operated in pre-revolutionary Cuba from 1900-1956. The artist alludes to the old banking system as gambling with the country's riches.

Mixed media on porcelain-lacquered metal on a vintage shop sign, from the series “Signs". - Wells Fargo and Company Express operated in pre-revolutionary Cuba from 1900-1956. The artist alludes to the old banking system as a way of gambling with the country's riches.

In his “palimpsesto” series the artist presents hidden images revealing landmarks of Cuban history. This piece makes reference to the 1934 Cuban-U.S. treaty ending the Platt Amendment which had dictated extensive U.S. involvement in Cuban international and domestic affairs after the Spanish American War. Archival news clippings and publication references, along with a black smudge indicating a censored paragraph, are photo-transferred onto aluminum.

The subject of this "hidden image" is Cuba's most revered writer and cultural icon, Alejo Carpentier. Lopez photo-transferred the back of the archival photograph depicting Carpentier onto an aluminum panel and added a hand-drawn portrait of the writer on top. The original image was published by Cuba's Bohemia magazine several times over a period of years.

Before the Cuban revolution, “El Iris”, founded in Havana in 1855 and operating until the mid-1950’s, was Cuba’s largest fire insurance company. Its oval porcelain fire marks became ubiquitous in Havana and other Cuban cities starting in the 19th century. Kadir Lopez frequently incorporates salvaged vintage advertising signs like this one into his work, superimposing nostalgic pre-revolutionary images (in this case glamorous Hollywood stars) onto them with a sense of irony as decades after the revolution both Cubans and foreign visitors are mining the by now romanticized past of the island. 

“Y Tome...Materva” (Drink Materva!), a popular shop sign in pre-revolutionary Cuba

During the Cuban Revolution, the Materva bottling plant producing the island’s most popular soft drink was targeted for strikes by revolutionaries, along with Coca Cola and Pepsi bottling plants in the country. Materva was made and sold in Cuba until 1960 when it was nationalized, along with other private industry. It is no longer produced in Cuba. (Wikipedia)

Today called Teatro Mella, Cine Teatro Rodi was a legendary movie palace in pre-revolutionary Havana's elegant El Vedado district where U.S. American movies with glamorous film stars were shown. To see the historical photo on which this work is based, click here