El Negro Detrás de la oreja

description

El Negro Detrás de la Oreja (The Black Behind the Ear) aims to enhance Dominican culture by marginalizing racial and classist stigmas that disrupt our society. 
Through a series of popular objects cast in porcelain and photographs, I create compositions with minimalist aesthetics interpreting popular Dominican phrases to depict 'Dominicanidad' in a decolonial context.
This project highlights how the culture of the Caribbean tends to be defined through the voices of its colonizers, thus excluding the rich heritage of our African and Taino ancestors.

“The Black Behind the Ear” is an old Dominican idiom first used in the 1883 poem by Juan Antonio Alix. The poem is a criticism of racial prejudice when Dominicans prioritize their European or white heritage while simultaneously rejecting their African roots.

“The white one”, who had a grandmother, As black as coal, Never mentions her, Even if they are set on fire. And to their aunt Mrs. Beans, Since she was white, They never stop mentioning her;
To make people understand, That they never had, The Black behind the Ear.”

– Juan Antonio Alix