Felipe Dulzaides (born February 23, 1965) is a Cuban-born American contemporary artist. His practice includes installation, photography, video, drawing, sculpture and performance. Two important cities of reference of his works are San Francisco, California and Havana, Cuba.
Family and education
Felipe Dulzaides was born in Havana during the early period of the Cuban revolution, a time characterized by collective hope and enthusiasm. He is the son of an influential musician (they share the same name) and a kindergarten teacher. His father played an important role in the development of jazz in Cuba. His family also includes the Origenes group poets Eliseo Diego, Fina Garcia-Marruz and Cintio Vitier.
In the mid 1980s Dulzaides attended the dramatic arts program of the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). As a student he became interested in the concepts of Jerzy Grotowski expressed on his book Towards a Poor Theater. Furthermore, he focused his studies in experimental theater, questioning issues of stereotype in theater representation. After completing his studies, he joined the group Buendia directed by Flora Lawten. While touring in Italy he quit dramatic arts and decided to not return to Havana.
After spending months in Italy and Spain, he moved to Miami. In 1993 he enrolled in documentary photography classes at Miami Dade Community College. In 1998 Dulzaides moved to California to work on his MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute. In San Francisco his work shifted from documentary street photography to conceptual photography, and he became interested in exploring how art relates to life. Bay Area conceptualists: Paul Kos, Tony Labat, and David Ireland particularly inspired him. From 2005 to 2009 he taught installation, conceptual photography, and video courses at the New Genres Department of the San Francisco Art Institute.
Work and themes
Improvisation plays an important role In Dulzaides’ practice. “Lucky accidents,” economy of means, and a poetic use of documentation, materials, found objects, metaphors and issues of representation are recurring aspects present in his art.
Incite and document a poetic occurrence
According to the curator Rene de Guzaman, Dulzaides’ “videos depict simple acts recorded throughout time. The artist often appears as a central element in his work, but also employs rudimentary objects, which are used to create performative actions. These acts have a repetitive or singular quality designed to create a flow that sweeps the viewer toward some unforeseen artistic destination. As we watch his work unfold, what may appear to be an elementary act loses its simplicity and takes on breadth, complexity and associations that the viewer brings to the artistic experience.”
In Following an orange (1999), the video that marks the beginning of his oeuvre, Dulzaides sets an orange in motion rolling down the street. At the end of the one-minute orange's arduous ride, it manages to safely cross a busy avenue through the passing cars.
On the ball (2000), is one of the most exhibited videos. It explores a psychological state caused by cultural displacement. Video and media curator Rudolf Frieling stated: “Unedited and staged without digital processing, On the Ball presents the visibility of the face as a function of breathing. At the same time, breathing heavily on the camera’s lens plays on the function of the videotape, its reference to time. In this instance, allowing something to become visible also proves itself to be a dialectic process of obscuring and making clear”
Tony Labat, a mentor at the San Francisco Art Institute, wrote about his video work stating: “Mixing and manipulating performance, sound, sculpture and the theatre of the body, Felipe Dulzaides creates hybrid and personal compositions...like songs...riffs...improvisations...poetry in motion.”
The city and the individual
Dulzaides’ work also explores the correlation between an individual and its context: the city. In San Francisco he used as his first studio a rooftop with an extraordinary view in the North Beach neighborhood. He titled it: “a studio without walls.” The two-channel video installation Dialogue with a Foghorn 1999-2002 presents on one channel, Dulzaides moving in circles riding a bicycle at dusk on a roof (a space without exit), while a separate video channel features him responding to a foghorn. Every time he responds to the foghorn with a whistle, he also illuminates his face with a flashlight thus establishing a visual contact with the viewer.