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Canal de la Mona: Zona de Turbulencia, 1999

Mixed media installation

Charles Juhász-Alvarado creates elaborate sculptural installations that compel a viewer not merely to see, but to investigate, piecing together complex arrangements formed by three-dimensional parts, participatory events, and emblematic narratives. Juhász-Alvarado entices spectators into his world through ambitious, oversized, toy-like objects, appealing colors, and tactile materials. Juhász-Alvarado’s work exhibits libidinal themes, furthered by his seductively glistening objects and unsettling narratives. They are open-ended, dream-like propositions intended to liberate the imagination despite the confines of the museological structure.

Canal de la Mona: Zona de Turbulencia fills the gallery with curvy strips of wood lathing that create turbulent waves and a human figure. A large, stuffed, sea-creature and a fanciful yellow submarine are suspended in the chaos. Vinyl text on the aquamarine gallery wall is reflected into a large mirror on the floor, giving a glimpse into the narrative which drives the work: a Dominican tour boat operator, Wilfrido, relates how a Siren-Manati saved and changed his life during his shipwreck in the Canal de la Mona–a turbulent strait between The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. As he arrives to Puerto Rico, only to be deported immediately, Wilfrido realizes that this experience has inspired him to be an artist. Wilfrido also relates the Siren-Manati’s story, who had attempted to cross in the opposite direction, from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic. When his submarine sank, a serpent penetrated his body. In ecstasy, he was transformed into a sea-creature. During this experience, he is kept in a state of "endless ejaculation." Wilfrido speculates that this convulsive state is responsible for the turbulence of Canal de la Mona. The epiphanic experience is the topic the deported artist dreams to address, if only he can break free of his quotidian life to which he is being forcibly returned.

With Canal de la Mona, Juhász-Alvardo thwarts the viewer’s expectations. What originally seems to be a fable of longing for the better life on the other side turns out to be a tale of unimaginable, and ambiguous, sexual pleasure, whose attraction is figured as the depths of a churning, dangerous strait. Juhász-Alvarado’s depiction of sexuality is metamorphosizing and transformative. He employs allegorical animals and exquisitely crafted sculptured objects in this mythic tale of slippery eroticism. The individual’s struggle against architectures–which stand as a surrogate for repressive societal structures–in order to express new potentials, rife with openly transgressive sexual desire, is suggested by the violation of multiple boundaries.

Juhász-Alvardo keeps possibility afloat. His science fiction visions are intense, inventive quests which disrupt stifling structures in the hopes of unleashing desire. Like strange dreams, their logic haunts us to awaken to our own alternative, utopian, potentials. –DC

Charles Juhasz-Alvarado (b. Clark Air Base, Phillippines, 1965) holds a Bachelors’ Degree in Art, with the double major of art and architecture, from Yale University (New Haven, CT). He has his Masters of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Yale School of Art, Yale University (New Haven, CT).

Juhász-Alvarado’s major solo exhibitions include Tu-Tran, held in Espai 13 at the Fundación Miró, (Barcelona, Spain, 1999); Canal de la Mona, at Interarte, (Valencia, Spain, 1999); and Punto de Fuga held simultaneously at Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico) and Luigi Marrozzini Gallery (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1998).

Notable recent group exhibitions have included Un Oasis en el Desierto Azul, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (Santurce, PR, 2000), Puerto Rico Hoy, Instituto de América Santa Fé (Granada, Spain, 2000), Canal de la Mona: Zona de Turbulencia, Heterotopías, Project-Room at Interart ‘99 (Valencia, Spain, 2000) and E=cm2, Taller Boricua (New York, NY, 1999).