Daniel Lind-Ramos: Las Tres Marias at Sarasota Art Museum

"Bano de Maria" (2018-2022) 

Anyone who grew up in Florida has some kind of hurricane story. When I was a kid, Panama City always managed to avoid a direct hit (although there was the time we had to use water from our pool to flush the toilets). But my parents' luck ran out in 2018 when the Category 5 Hurricane Michael struck. Their assisted living facility told them to pack three days of clothes and medication and bused them to Montgomery. Six months later -- after extended stays with my sister and me -- they were able to go home. 

While Panama City was devastated by Hurricane Michael, there's an enormous difference between that experience and the utter destruction and humanitarian crisis Hurricane Maria wreaked on Puerto Rico. Just imagine -- Your community has been destroyed and there's nowhere to go that hasn't been affected and no way to leave. FEMA didn't arrive until two weeks after the storm; power didn't come back for 84 days. More than 4,000 lives were lost. Living through this experience is the primary subject of Daniel Lind-Ramos' Las Tres Marias, now on display at the Sarasota Art Museum (SAM). It is immensely moving, powerful and creative. 

"Maria Guabancex" (2018-2022)

Lind-Ramos was on site at SAM for a few days assembling his sculptures. While there, he spoke to an eager crowd of art lovers about his work and his life. The two are deeply interwoven. Lind-Ramos was born in Loiza, Puerto Rico and still lives there today. And so he experienced Hurricane Maria first hand. He recalled being told to evacuate at 1 a.m. in the midst of the storm. Instead, he hunkered down in his home. Where was there to go? When he cut through the debris to get out of his house the next morning, the wreckage of his town surrounded him. Many homes had been flattened by the 150+ mph winds, and his neighbors' possessions were all around him. There was so much water that he was half-walking, half-swimming. Reaching out for some support, he grabbed a propeller. Lind-Ramos, propeller in hand, made his way back to his studio. It would eventually become part of his artistic response to the crisis. 

Lind-Ramos' studio is on the second floor of his home, and he recalls looking out over a sea of blue FEMA tarps that served as his neighbors' roofs for many months following Maria. It seemed natural for the tarps to become an integral piece of these works. "Maria Guabancex" includes as its core a sizeable branch that has an even more personal meaning. During Hurricane Irma in 2017, a branch fell onto Lind-Ramos' studio. During Hurricane Maria, the same branch was lifted and fell onto his mother's home next door.

Daniel Lind-Ramos 

Lind-Ramos didn't always work as an assemblage artist. He started as a traditional painter and began incorporating 3D objects in his works so they became relief-like. Over time he transitioned to working almost exclusively with found and repurposed items. He said that painting did not provide him with enough tools for his work. Assemblage sculptures allow him to transform objects into metaphors. 

All three sculptures in the exhibit contain numerous components that give meaning to the work. "Bano de Maria" features a woman wearing a tarp as clothing as the central figure. She is in the midst of the storm. The assemblage includes wind instruments that evoke the sounds of rain, wind and thunder that enveloped him during the hurricane. Coconuts lie at Maria's feet, recalling the coconuts and other foliage that littered the streets. And the propeller found after Maria passed has been placed at the top of the sculpture and mimics the eye of the storm.  

Lind-Ramos begins each work with sketches. The exhibit contains some examples, and they are a wonderful peek into his process. This page includes some writing noting that these are "objects related to the movement, rhythm, sound and potential devastating power of a hurricane." 

I was amazed by how human some of the components appear. The propeller and what looks to be a hose or tool of some sort have morphed into eyes staring back at the viewer. They're appropriately ominous. The middle object, topped by a wind instrument, funnels down into what could be a nose. It's off kilter, as Puerto Rico was following the storm. And while the tools don't summon any human features, they are a reminder of the sounds associated with the reconstruction of homes and  other structures after Maria. 

There's so much intention behind each component of Lind-Ramos' work that it's impossible to do it justice in a blog post. His ability to take everyday objects and convert them into meaningful symbols is remarkable. If you're in the area, I couldn't encourage you more strongly to visit SAM to see "Las Tres Marias." The exhibit runs through August 7, and more information can be found by clicking here. In the meantime, for a video of Lind-Ramos in his studio, click here. And for his website, click here. Kudos to Sarasota Art Museum for introducing Lind-Ramos and his work to our community.