↳ Exhibitions

Tropiwhat at Embajada

August 9, 2021

Artist: Tropiwhat (Fernando Norat)

Exhibition title: No olvides lavarte el cerebro

Venue: Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Date: June 26 – August 21, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Embajada, San Juan

Embajada is pleased to present the first individual exhibition by visual artist and graphic historian Fernando Norat (alias Tropiwhat), titled ‘No Olvides Lavarte el Cerebro’ (‘Don’t Forget to Wash Your Brain’). In this exhibition, Norat presents the series that best reflects his interdisciplinary practice, one that draws us into his historiographic work through his curious and colorful visual representations. In his series titled ‘Libros que no existen’ (‘Books That Do Not Exist’), Norat invites us to explore a selection of 15 of his 78 book covers (one for each municipality), with the purpose of pushing us to reflect about the role of present-day people in the (re)formation of the past and the construction of the future.

In his own words, Norat not only invites us to explore each one of his representations, but also dares us to dive into the process of illustrating Puerto Rican realities openly, without holding back, in a way that promotes dialogue and critique and fosters the formation of bonds that unite us with the historical experience of our Caribbean region. Applying a folk-inspired approach in his elaboration of the methodology of microhistory (the systematic study of a limited time and space, which has the effect of eroding macrostructural understandings), his main goal is the rescue of collective memory and social narratives of scant circulation in the hegemonic spaces of our everyday experience. Each of the book covers has visual characteristics that are related to its placement (red for valleys, green for mountains, blue for coastlines, and grey for cities), alluding to the physical differences that affect the everyday subjectivity of individuals in the Caribbean.

Burrowing the aesthetic elements of 1950’s posters created by DIVEDCO (an entity whose goal was the production of a collective memory tied to a linear conception of progress and to the promises of the nascent Commonwealth status), the book covers represent an attempt to undermine this didactic strategy. By decentralizing historical narrative(s) and (re)localizing the covers in each municipality, this series represents a form of memory that is alive and active. In other words, Norat tries to not only put alternative histories on display, but also to present them as dialectical counterpoints in opposition to the myths of origin or charter narratives that still serve to rationalize the structures that support the status quo.

In addition to the series of book covers, many of Norat’s illustrations will also be included and made available in the exhibition. These pieces are created in a variety of formats, including magnets, postcards, posters, and t-shirts.

Text by Eduardo J. Rivera Pichardo (b. 1992, Bayamón, P.R.) (PhD candidate in social and political psychology at NYU)

Fernando Norat (b. 1995, Aibonito, Puerto Rico) currently lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island, where he is a PhD candidate in Caribbean History at Brown University. He was named Artist of 2020 by Puerto Rican newspaper Claridad, and he has worked as an illustrator for WNYC Studios, the Smithsonian, and Rimas Entertainment, among others. He has also participated as an illustrator in community projects.