Corona Plaza: Center of Everywhere v1, Summer 2007 / Corona Plaza: Centro de Todos Lados v1, Verano 2007

QMA launches first edition of public art projects in Corona Plaza, with curator Herb Tam  /  El Museo de Arte de Queens hace el lanzamiento de la primera edición de proyectos de arte público en Corona Plaza bajo la curadoría de Herb Tam

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El Conquistador vs. The Invisible Man

Shaun "El Conquistador" Leonardo battles El Hombre Invisible in Corona Plaza

Shaun “El C.” Leonardo presented the final performance of El Conquistador vs. The Invisible Man, a recurring wrestling event in which the artist portrays a Mexican wrestling luchador battling an invisible opponent to fight invisibility, both metaphorically and literally, as well as to challenge the idealization of hypermasculinity in Latino culture. The match became a physical way to manifest not only a battle against societal obscurity, but also an internal struggle with the complexities of the artist’s identity (Queens-born, of mixed Dominican and Guatemalan descent).

The project in Corona Plaza entailed a slow building of hype around the luchador persona and the culminating fight performance which took place during the final 2007 Corona Plaza street celebration (September 15, 2007). A video piece simulating a “press conference” was presented on screens at local electronic stores and restaurants, along with wrestling workshops with youth at local elementary school’s and autograph-signing events our Corona Cares Street Festivals. Posters announcing the battle were plastered in shop windows from July 1 through the time of the September performance. El C also just spent a lot time hanging in local barber shops talking up the event and building anticipation. Over 1000 people packed Corona Plaza to see the nail-biting finale. The performance itself was a journey starting with the comical and “glam” and building in physical and psychic energy to a climax: the exhausted and defeated luchador finally unmasked.

Muros Distopicos/Dystopic Walls

Hector Canonge helps a young particpant create a flag of her country of origin and letter to relatives on the other side of the border to be displayed at the local Western Union.

Hector Canonge’s Muros Distopicos / Dystopic Walls project erected a wall inside Western Union in Corona Plaza that referred to the border wall dividing Mexico and the U.S. Upon entering Western Union, viewers could look through peepholes at images evoking memories of various countries “south of the border,” and when exiting, images of America appeared, mimicking a border-crossing experience. Also on display were objects made by Corona residents during the street festivals referring to their status as immigrants or children of immigrants. For example, at one festival, Canonge asked attendees to write letters to their loved ones on the other side of the border on Western Union Moneygram forms.

The project pointed toward the ways in which immigrants support families and towns in their home countries through remittances, performing a type of transnational community development that these individuals might actually never benefit from themselves. The cost of these “development projects” is an often invisible individual sacrifice by the immigrant worker subject to separation from loved ones, anti-immigrant discrimination, and fear of deportation. This project made visible these transactions and dislocations.

This is What I Eat

Designed to look like a supermarket circular, This Is What I Eat was distributed for free in and around Corona Plaza and the Queens Museum.

Stephanie Diamond’s public art project involved her with the health and wellness of the Corona community. This is What I Eat, a cookbook created in the style of a supermarket circular, was developed in conjunction with residents living near and around Corona Plaza through workshops with QMA community partners and Cookbook Committee members, fun surveys and games with local youth during our street festivals, research conducted with shoppers in local supermarkets, and numerous dinners with residents. The contents of the cookbook consisted of local residents’ recipes and customs from their country of origin and how they adapted while living in New York, recommended food remedies, shopping lists, and written memories of family meals. They were visually arresting and gastronomically informative. The cookbook was printed primarily in English, but with sections featuring all the major languages spoken in Corona. This is What I Eat was available free of charge in several dispensers near Corona Plaza, and distributed with the help of local supermarkets and at QMA’s street festivals.

A New Americana

Xaveria Simmons takes portrait against backdrop in outdoor studio at Corona Cares Festival

In stark contrast to the beautiful, but brutal, performance art of Shaun “El C.” Leonardo, Xaveria Simmons created idyllic vinyl backdrops featuring nature photographs of upstate New York. These were stretched between trees in Corona Plaza during April street festival days and served as a backdrop for the free portrait sessions she conducted with festival attendees. The backgrounds created scenes reminiscent of the American Dream, which for many Corona residents is impossible due to immigration status and long work hours. Simmons provided hand-printed portraits to members of the community free of charge. In order to better connect Corona residents with QMA, these portraits were available for pick-up at the Museum and were accompanied by free museum passes. The collection period coincided with QMA’s exhibition Generation 1.5 (June 10 – December 2, 2007), which featured the work of artists who were born abroad but came of age in America, a subject that proved to be of special interest to local residents – more than 1,000 people attended the show’s opening. Simmons selected four of the pictures to be blown up into translucent banners and hung in the second story windows above the bakery on Corona Plaza from July to the closing ceremonies on October 14, 2007. These banners, and the internal contradictions they present to many recent émigrés, were visible to all commuters exiting the 103rd Street 7 train station, making visible many families who are invisible due to their work schedules and lack of documentation.

Center of Everywhere v1 on WNYC radio

Siddhartha Mitter talks to Corona Plaza: Center of Everywhere v1 artists Hector Canonge and Shaun “El C” Leonardo.