Claudio Jimenez
“Home’s like an old iron kettle you’ve had for years, and you know exactly when to get up and get the tea bags before it starts whistling…I think the only place you can really have a home is located somewhere in your abdomen, and almost no one ever finds it. I don’t think I ever will.”
-Marlon Labovitch (1999-2021)
My body of work is an homage to my best friend Marlon who passed away in May. It is an installation based on the first and last letter he wrote to me when we had decided to become pen pals. In this exchange, we talked about the concept of home. Marlon was an amazing writer who evokes vivid imagery in his words, this is why I decided to paint the images I see when I read his writing.
This project is interdisciplinary in its mélange of painting, installation art, and found objects. The main muses of my work are Pepón Osorio, Doris Salcedo and Felix Gonzalez Torres; all artists whose work is influenced by collective trauma. I am inspired by Pepon Osorio’s use of a space, and Felix’s interactive installations in which audience members are encouraged to take pieces from the installation itself — this is what I do with the postcards being distributed in the showing. They are what Marlon called “sensory postcards,” feelings of home from his childhood that came back to him every once in a while. These postcards are meant to be taken by you, the audience, so that you can take these feelings of home to your homes, and send them to other homes.
My wish is to immortalize Marlon’s story, to bring back the feelings of home he was unable to relive, and ultimately to show him the love I wish I had shown him while he was still alive. I miss you Marlon.