Sunday evening at Cas Di Cultura welcomed more than 100 ticket holders to a production of White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, a play by an Iranian playwright, Nassim Soleimanpour.
It was written as a reaction to his government’s refusal to issue him a passport because he did not want to serve in the army, which was compulsory, and a condition to the issuance of travel documents.
What nonsense.
Unable to travel, Nassim wrote an absurd play he hoped will be performed around the globe, with many contemporary themes, oppression among them.
The play with no rehearsals, no director, and no set, challenges our ability to listen, and really listen, as in obey.
I am proud to say that one of the members of the audience, refused to do what he was told, which means that we have rebels among us, that will offer opposition and resistance, to absurd requests from authority.
And Maria who was asked to take notes, completely zoned out, which means that individualism still exists. We don’t just obey orders.
You should have been there.
Our solo actor did a good job imitating a cheetah, masquerading as an ostrich, that is really a rabbit underneath.
Then we had a glass of wine and sauntered into the expo hall next door, showing works of art by Jess Wolff and Olga Gabrielle.
Both are true artists.
Jess is also an artisan, her proficient sewing, weaving, stitching and quilting skills are part of the artwork, a cross between sculptures and installations. A graduate of the Rietveld academy in the Netherlands she comes from a very artistic family in Aruba, and her themes shuffle between sustainability to feminism, with roots in Caribbean and early cultures, no plastic, just organic twigs, yarn, textiles, dirt and skull bones.
Jess creates striking enigmatic work. I liked the space she trapped between wrapped twigs, floating midair, and her quilted, vomiting Medusa, expelling a mouthful of squirmy worms, in pink.
I told you, you should have been there.
Her monumental ethnic headdress, incorporating all her artisanal century-old weaving capabilities, with yarn, thread and cloth, also in pink, in spectacular.
Pink is apparently the color of the hour
Olga studied performing arts in Colombia, and her stage background shows in a three-minute video, shot on the shores of a mythical lake, with a red-clad figure, abandoned on the sand, reminiscent of the horrors in The Handmaid’s Tale, the futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood
The exhibition is titled Tera / Soil, where the artists incorporate Aruba, the land, and landscape, into their works.
Curator Ana Maria Hernandez did an excellent job.
She says: Throughout history, artists have often explored their sense of identity through art. For some local artists, questions around ‘who we are’ remain an important theme. Our exhibition presents the works of Olga Gabrielle and Jess Wolff, two local artists who introduce the Aruban landscape into their artistic discourse. Through very different perspectives and approaches, they explore their sense of self, place, and understanding of their environment by engaging with the land.
TERA|SOIL will be on view at Cas di Cultura from March 14th till April 13th. It is the third show part of the AUA Exhibits ’21-’22.
