Remaking Afro-Indigenous Archives with Julianny Ariza Vólquez

These pieces were part of her series No-Objetos (2021-2023), inspired by French anthropologist and ethnologist Marc Augé’s concept of Non-Places, which he described as spaces devoid of significant identity, historical meaning and societal relations in official discourse. In this series, Vólquez recreated archival Taíno and African artifacts, aiming to humanize them in imagined spaces, reversing the colonizers’ act of objectification.

“My work explores exercises of recovery and coexistence of Indigenous, Afro-descendant and feminine identity,” she told me. “Through sculptures, installations and paintings; I put into relation and friction representative materials from the main cultures that inhabited the insular Caribbean.” Working with archives and collections is central to Vólquez’s practice. Her subjects are inspired by artifacts found in private and archaeological collections in the US and the Dominican Republic, some of which she reimagined in her sculptures. As we sat at her desk reviewing some of her more recent moving-image work, I noticed a small sculpture reminiscent of a monument. The piece La Muerte del Chivo forms part of her installation Atersoro (2020-2021). This work continues her exploration of domestic and museum collections, examining their roles in shaping collective memory.

For Artesoro, Vólquez visited the archives of two museums: the archaeological collection of the Centro León, and the collection of European Ceramics at the Museo de la Porcelana. She focused on non-exhibited Taíno pieces and interpreted the hierarchy and narratives resulting from the interaction between the artifacts. “I also looked for minority pieces in the collections, ” she explained. “In the case of Centro Léon, it was a female anthropo-zoomorphic effigy vase, while in the Museo de la Porcelana, it was a piece representing a person of African descent.“ In this piece, the artist recontextualizes hierarchical and patriarchal societal orders by proposing an imagery of continuity and syncretism. In it, the Indigenous, Afro-diasporic and white European imagery, coexist, while promoting the original local Dominican communities’ aesthetics and worldviews.

Next to the tiny statue La Muerte del Chivo, I spotted a wooden mask used in her unpublished video work Aquellas Tres Mares, which was still in the editing stage during my visit. The masks were sent to her in the context of her digital residency You Better Say Our Names: Home-Based Residencies, organized by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, during which she was in exchange with Zambian conceptual artist Benny Blow. Although new to video as a medium, Vólquez’s past work resonates in the stills she shared with me, as porcelain artifacts that inspired her previous paintings and sculptures appeared once again. The final video was funded through her savings and the art classes she teaches. In addition to her artistic practice, Vólquez also co-founded ONTO, an arts publication envisioned by a group of artists and cultural managers. The publication attempts to address topics in the local Dominican Republic art scene, such as the lack of specialized publications and the difficulties associated with a deficient institutionalization.

Months after visiting Vólquez’s studio, her work continues to resonate with me, especially as I reflect on her efforts to address the representation of marginalized voices against a continually violent and repressive system. These voices are critical to the ongoing dialogue about contemporary art and identity in the Dominican Republic. Despite the odds, these voices are here to stay.

Note: This visit took place in November 2023 and was part of a series of studio visits organized by C&AL Associate Editor Yina Suriel Jiménez. Among the artists visited were Eliazar Ortiz Roa, Fidel Ernesto, Digno Roa, Tiempo de Zafra and Yessica Montero.

Julianny Ariza Vólquez (b. 1987, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a visual artist rethinking exclusionary models within Dominican material memory through sculptures, installations, and paintings. She is among the invited artists to the Artpace San Antonio residency in Texas, USA (July-September 2024). In 2024, she presented the video art piece “Those Three Tides” at the National Art Gallery Livingstone, Zambia.

Marny Garcia Mommertz (she/her) is a writer and artist who explores experimental forms of archiving within the Diaspora and delves into the life of Black woman artist and activist Fasia Jansen, a Holocaust survivor in Germany. Her artistic practice currently focuses on montage. She is the managing editor of C& AL.