Extensión Familiar by Javier Bosques
Extensión Familiar by Javier Bosques
Extensión familiar
2019
Ceramic
Dimensions variable
Edition of 50 + 5 APs
Signed by the artists
Each house is unique and comes packaged in a custom carrying case designed by Estudio Herrerra.
Extensión familiar by Javier Bosques is a series of model-scale ceramic houses drawn from memory and made in collaboration with the artist’s mother, Elba Meléndez. The edition pays homage to single-family housing with unfinished construction, a common sight in the Puerto Rican landscape. Typically built upon over time due to constrained resources, the cinder blocks stacked over the roof signal aspirations to expand and grow. This construction process goes very slowly, as if permanently on pause, leaving each house as a humble facade of hope.
The edition continues the artist’s exploration of architectural demarcations and their social role within a larger context. This project is expanded upon through Bosques’s collaboration with his mother, who took on ceramics after her son moved to the United States as a student. Meléndez constructed and painted each house with a unique design, created in a manner that reflects the improvisational building techniques of the island.
Javier Bosques (b. 1985 San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an artist with a visual language that explores the plurality and subjective nature of experiences. He studied arts at The Cooper Union in New York City, 2008, and holds a masters in film directing from UCLA in Los Angeles, 2015. Recent presentations include: Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, 2019; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2018; LAXART, Los Angeles, 2017; Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, 2017; Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, 2017.
Elba Meléndez (b. 1949 Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) is a ceramicist who found her creative talents more recently in life. She studied Business Administration, 1970 and received an M.A. in Environmental Planning, 1977, from the University of Puerto Rico. In 1993, she completed her Doctorate in Education from the Interamerican University. Over the last decade, Meléndez has honed her practice in ceramics and has begun to exhibit her work internationally.
Extensión familiar 2009-2012, a series of ceramics and photographs by Bosques and Meléndez, is part of the permanent collection of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.
