Radhamés Mejía

Through the appropriation of Taino culture’s style of representation, Radhamés Mejía creates a plastic language in which the past and the present meet. In Cabeza llena de plátanos (Head full of bananas) the Dominican artist living in Paris breaks the canvas into semi-geometric sections with a large square in the center and rectangles on the sides of the composition. In the central reddish square, we can see two heads in profile adorned with bananas. One of the figures is inverted, creating a dislocation in the painting’s direction. At the top there are two shoes, also seen in profile, with what appear to be springs coming out of them. The figures are represented by clear lines and a simplified drawing. In the lower part you can make out anthropomorphic figures made up of geometric lines. By juxtaposing figures that allude to the pre-Hispanic past and elements of contemporary life — such as shoes and bananas — on the heads of the central figures, Mejía creates a new plastic language through which he seeks to tell the story of the complex history of the Caribbean.