Caja De Memoria Viva II: Constancia Colón de Clemente

Doing as others told me,
I was blind.
Coming when others called me,
I was lost.
Then I left everyone,
myself as well.
Then I found everyone,
myself as well.
~ Rumi ~

Adrian Roman’s Puerto Rican heritage and New York City upbringing inform his artistic practice. Traveling between the two places sparked an interest in exploring the disparate worlds of the tropical landscape and the overpopulated cityscape. His installations explore migration, race, and identity through memories of “observed and experienced events, repressed trauma, and childhood.” Caja De La Memoria Viva II portrays Constancia Colón de Clemente, a black Puerto Rican who migrated to the United States in the 1940s, in a three-dimensional multimedia installation that allows the viewer to literally enter Constancia’s head. This portrait and others like it permit Román to “embark on a quest to visually represent how precious our memories are and capture the dignity in the people’s struggle and validate their existence.”