From the gallery: The Hill Street Country Club is proud to present AGRIDULCE: a solo exhibition by Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez. The show features video works, soil prints, and terrazzo tiles that take a speculative fiction approach to explore connection, collaboration, and care against a backdrop of climate change and the lingering structures of colonialism in Puerto Rico. “My work is about imaginaries.” - Jezabeth Featured video works like the multi-channel piece, Isla Flotante uses a speculative fiction approach to the visual narrative and realities of the every day, that is they do not recount any particular event. Instead of constructing a story with casted characters and a final lesson, Jezebeth collaborates with their family acting as editor and composer of their personal experiences as seen through the family’s group chat. This lets each participant exist as a complex individual and brings viewers into the everyday acts of imagination and creativity required to connect across generations, space, and time. Jezebeth’s terrazzo tiles and soil prints are firmly grounded in a sense of place, literally. The distinct red/orange soil found around Jezabeth’s family’s home is a recurring material used in sculptures and printmaking processes. Accessible materials are a core part of Jezabeth’s practice and another point of collaboration with their family who collect and ship the earth from Puerto Rico in bricks. By positioning themselves as collaborator and caretaker, Jezabeth invites viewers to reconsider how we might draw on personal and material resources symbiotically. What does creativity look like when it is liberated from productivity? How might imagination be a means to stay connected in a world that is both passively changing and being actively changed? AGRIDULCE - Meaning: the mixture of something sour and sweet. Something that can be pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. ABOUT JEZABETH: Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez (they/them/Elle/Le) is a multidisciplinary Cuir-Diaspo-Boricux artist based in Oceanside, California. They hold an MFA from the University of South Florida where they received the Dedalus MFA Fellowship In Painting and Sculpture in 2020. Jezabeth has completed multiple residencies in the United States and Canada and is currently in residence at the Hidrante project space in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Schedule a free appointment to view the exhibit here. Gallery hours: Feb. 27 5:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 28 5:30-8:30 p.m. (with the artist) Mar. 28 6-7 p.m. (with the artist; food and drinks provided) Artist talks: Sunday, March 5 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 14 6-8 p.m. Related links: The Hill Street Country Club on Facebook The Hill Street Country Club on Instagram Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez on Vimeo
