P.R.ide

In accordance with the festivities happening in Humboldt Park this week to honor Puerto Ricans, it seemed fitting to mention Pepon Osorio- a Puerto Rican contemporary artist, whose large scale installations and sculptures address issues of identity and experience in the Latin American community. Though highly specific, I think that everyone can understand his work or at least recognize their relationship to it. For instance, No Crying Allowed in the Barber Shop stems from Osorio's personal experience of his first hair cut, and how this was a transitional moment into becoming a "little man" in true machismo fashion. While this experience remains uniquely his own, it resonates with many Latin Americans, and transcends into larger topics like tradition, family, community, expectations, and memory. The explicit and implicit influences of each may vary from individual to individual, but everyone can acknowledge their impact and this remains the common tie. 

No Crying Allowed in the Barber Shop (1994)

100% Boriqua (1991)

La Bicicleta (1985)

chill out on those horns, tho

p