Alexandra Domínguez. A Journey to Mythical Spaces

Alexandra Domínguez. A Journey to Mythical Spaces

In the preface to their study of inter artistic approaches to modern Spanish an Spanish American texts, Painting on the page : Inter artistic Approaches to Modern Hispanic Texts (SUNY Press, 1995) Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal and Carlos Feal State,

    "Criticism in the post structural and postmodern veins has been working toward a fuller     integration of literature and other fields, especially the visual arts. Disciplinary boundaries are being crossed - and crosses out- as quickly as the cultural maps are redrawn. Those fields of representation grouped under "literature" and "the visual arts" are currently being studied in conjunction with major theoretical and methodological issues, and we are particularly invested in finding appropriate critical  strategies that combine psychoanalysis, feminism, semiotics, and philosophy as they may be applied to late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century Spanish and Spanish American Literature in relation to painting an to larger question of art history (XIII).

The floodgates were thus opened for further study of the relationships between the verbal and plastic arts, and since then we have seen a surge in interdisciplinary studies of literature an visual media. One prominent example is Lois Parkinson Zamora' s article of 1999 in Modern Language Notes, 

" Inter artistic Approaches to to Contemporary Latin American Literature", which outlines "four theoretical questions inherent in al inter artistic response" but then asks why, al the turn of the XXI century, "does inter artistic analysis need to be specified rather tan simple assumed? (390-391). Professor Zamora goes on to reference the division of literature and the other arts into separate departments en the 1930's. From this vantage point, scholars have attempted to bridge the divides created by this separation in order to provide what Baudelaire suggested the arts aspire told do, i.e, "if not to take another place, al least reciprocally to lend one another new powers" (quoted in Zamora' s article,p.389).

The visual art and poetry of Alexandra Domínguez (Concepción, Chile) present themselves as fully open to ekphrastic and ut pictura  poesis studies, clearly lending  each other news power. Her poetry has been presented on pages facing her corresponding art - aquatints, oil painting, etchings, wax an mineral colors on wood, and mixed media (Alexandra Domínguez,p.48) When asked if, for her, "There is no difference. The two are of a single poetic sensitivity- whether with words or with paint" (Interview with Dean Thacker, Madrid, March 15, 2014). During interviews from June 30 July 3, 2014 with Girard in her Madrid home studio, she reveals telling sources for both her imagery an her construction process.Cherishing her Chilean heritage and frequently referencing it in her visual works, her repeated uso of forms, compositional structures, and coloration speak directly to South American Traditions. In this sense, her artwork differ somewhat from her poetry, although both rely on personal and cultural history. The aquatint "Cartografía de los desconocido" (Alexandra Domínguez p. 29) is a prime example of this allusion in that subdued earth tones and layered fields of graphics bring to mind remnants os Pre- Colombian fabrics or clothing that have survived to the present.

                                                        Cartografía de los desconocido

the flattened, loosely gridded space tends to real like cryptic glyphs, insisting on a  closer, more studied interoperation. The repeated configurations of organic and geometric shapes provide something of a false pattern, and, at times, look to be based on ancient statuary. The bold viridian shapes seem to intersect with an equally disordered substructure before  dissolving into a second under - layer of soft yellow ocre forms. The combined two layers are reminiscent of old city plats, as though a new architecture has been built on top of some lost city without full awareness of what has passed before. In this way, the geometric tend to take on an organic vitality Domínguez's use of irregular - almost organic- geometric shapes, coupled with a surface that struggles for order, closely aligns the image with a distinctively human experience. The aquatint could easily han alongside any number of displays in Madrid's Museums of the Americas, or the broader Archeological Museum, two distinct sources for both her inspiration and reflection.

Domínguez characterizes herself as a devout abstractionist and speaks passionately about the ambiguities of form and meaning in her work. She is ever-aware of the fact that this ambiguity  might provide the viewer with any number of interpretations, and revels in the possibilities. Consistent with this notion of ambiguity, Domínguez works intuitively, allowing for the interplay of both her conscious and subconscious states. She asserts that a work can drive itself without the presence of a heavy hand or predisposes composition For her, the artist must be willing to interact spontaneously with the work while it is becoming. For many artists, this approach presents too great a risk and does not allow for adequate control of outcomes ; the likelihood of losing a work es too great possibility. But Domínguez es prolific in her process and her production, and is driven by her curiosity for what lies ahead, whether prints, paintings, poetry, text translation, or simple learning a new language. She has little time or patience for worrying about risks. At the same time, she proudly displays her mother's violin in her studio and speaks to the concrete narrative that serves both the print "Cartografía de los desconocido" an her poem "El violín de Aída", which appears on the page facing the print in her book Alexandra Domínguez.

                                                    

                                       El violín de Aída

                    Mi madre tocaba el violín junto a la ventana los días de lluvia.

                    Con mirada atenta calculaba la mecanografía secreta del grillo

                    que hace sonar las cuerdas bajo el arco de crin.

                    El profesor de música la contemplaba en silencio, 

                    hacía de pronto un gesto brusco con la mano

                    y ella se detenía y él le indicaba como debía repetir otra vez la pieza.

                    El invierno era largo, todas las horas durante una hora

                    mi madre tomaba clases de violín. El violín de mi madre

                    era un Schuster&Co, que tengo yo ahora en mi casa.

                    A eso de las cuatro subía por la cuesta el maestro de música,

                    con parsimonia y paciencia se disponía a enseñarle la lección del día,

                    las mariposas negras del pentagrama, las estrellas de la partitura.

                    El invierno era largo, durante una hora mi madre tocaba el violín, llovía.

                    A eso de las cinco el profesor daba por concluida la batalla,

                    cerraba su carpeta, cogía su abrigo,intentaba encontrar la puerta.

                    Yo lo veía desde la ventana bajar por la cuesta como si se fuese abrumado

                    hasta que se perdía entre los árboles su lena figura vestida de negro.

                    El invierno era largo, a eso de las seis mi madre abría de nuevo el estuche, 

                    sacaba su violín, comenzaba a hacer sus deberes de música, llovía.

                    Algo ocurría entonces que no deber ser comprendido,

                    algo que jamás debiera ser explicado,

                    la música del cielo, el canon de la lluvia hecho luz en sus manos.

My mother would play the violin next to the window on rainy days

Her gaze attentive, she would calculate the secret typing of the cricket that makes

the strings sound under the horsehair bow.

The music professor would watch her in silence,

would make a sudden gesture with his hand,

she would stop and he would show her how to play the piece again.

The winter was long, every afternoon for an hour

my mother too violin classes. My mother's violin

was a Schuster&Co.which i now have in my house.

Around four the music teacher would walk up the hill,

slowly and patiently he would prepare to teach her the lesson of the day,

the black butterflies of the staff, the stars of the musical score.

The winter was long, for an hour my mother would play the violin, it would rain.

Around five the professor would consider the battle over,

would close his folder, pick up his coat, try to find the door.

I would watch him descend the hill as if he were overwhelmed

until his slow figure would disappear in the trees.

The winter was long, around six my mother would reopen the case,

take out the violin, begin to practice, it would rain.

And then something would happen that must never be understood,

some that should never be explained

the music of the heavens, the canon or rain made light in her hands.

Both the print and the poem are about time, whether reflections on childhood

memories or the fleeting time- bases nature of music itself. A concurrent interpretation of the poem and the aquatint would suggest that the individualized shapes of the print read like notes played into a musical passage laid over larger structures that reference the concrete form of the violin - bow and string, neck, frets, and running keys - along with the structural lines of sheet music. The lack of regular pattern is reminiscent or a real violin lesson during which a student might practice smaller passages before taking on a complete score - the parts suggestive of how we humans tend to retrieve piecemeal recollection. The muted earth tone palette roots the work firmly in nature, the geometric forms now reading more like a rural, pastoral landscape, where buildings tend to rise in a more organic fashion. The irregular arrangement of forms conjures up soft pastoral sounds, devoid of the regular sounds of an industrialized city. At the sea time, the lack of a clear focal point in the work could be interpreted as a renewing condition.

Largely an asymmetrical composition, the aquatint appears to have been developed over a stable, passive, symmetrical substructure. The resulting tension between the two compositional structures, combined with elements anda layer  that cluster into fleeting passages, provide the work a quiet but active movement - an "ebb and flow" between the symmetrical understructure an the dynamics of an asymmetrical composition. In this light, the print is constantly reforming itself, providing the view with a vital, renewing visual experience that parallels the day-to-day industry of a small rural community.

Turning briefly from the visual to the literary page, for Domínguez the poetic es the simple, the uncomplicated; it is the awareness of feeling. It is the sense of one's connectedness to the universe - physical, imaginary and mythical.She consideres herself to be in a Chilean poetic tradition similar to that of Violeta Parra who, she says "rescues the human being and poeticizes him of her" (interview with Dean-Thacker, March 2014) Domínguez own idea of rescuing includes sharing her journey, illustrating the limitlessness of human capability , elevating the simple to the sublime, and approaching the unknown. Her poetry incorporates irony an laughter which, she says, are fundamental traits of the Chilean psychological makeup. She is always in the real world but learning into the mythical ; things are open to interpretation, to another look, another humanity.

One prominente aspecto of Domínguez poetry and art is her use of realms, connection to the past, language and naming. Her American roots run deep, as she continues to be concerned with the plight of the native populations os Chile, particularly the Mapuche ("the people of the earth", who have struggled to retain their native lands.

In the poem "El violín de Aída" Domínguez offers a clear example of the powerful results that can arise from blending art anda poetry. While the poem illustrates a diligent mother practicing as she takes violin lessons, the corresponding art depicts the stringent, disciplined nature of music lessons. Shapes subsume other shapes, which gives the painting both texture and a layering effect. Partially concealed elements of the painting lend both mystery and whimsy, as the viewer realizes that the whole work is a representation of sheet music. But stepping back, one notices the allusion to construction, to composition, to arranging elements in a certain order, to harmony. Returning to the poem, one finds that its structure reveals a lack of rhythm and rhyme, except in the four central lines (10-13) where the rhyme is assonant. Here, the narrator writes that she observes the violin instructor ascend the hill to the home of his student, the poet's mother, and slowly and patiently prepare to give her the music lessons of the day which includes "the black butterflies of the staff" and "the stars of the musical score". The reader may see the butterflies as the bass clef and treble clef, and the stars as the musical notes themselves. The narrator adds that her mother plays the violin for an hour during the lesson. An hour after the lessons ends and the teacher leaves, she resumes her practice of the instrument.

The language of the poem in unadorned, and the emphasis appears to be on the striking contrast between the technique which is taught and the art which is created The monotony of repetition during the lessons fiber by an unenthusiastic, perhaps weary violin instructor during a dreary , rainy winter, contrasts with the sublime, ineffable, powerfull art that the mother produces in the absence of the instructor. The narrator insists that this magical occurrence "must not be understood, should never be explained", referring to it as "the music of the heavens, the canon of the rain made light" in her mother's hands. The reader senses the power of the music to lift the darkness, heaviness, and perhaps sadness not only from the room, but from the season. The poet senses that to try to understand how this happens would forever nullify the attraction to the mystery that she witnesses.

In "Cartografía de lo desconocido" it appears that the ineffable quality of the mother' s music is portrayed by the musical score which defies elucidation. Both the painting and the music are greater than the sum of their components, as they produce a mysterious, genuinely aesthetic composition. The inter artistic play is ever more evidente as the reader understands that two artistic media, poetry and visual art, are featuring yet a third medium music. The similarity of the three arts in question is highlighted, as all are capable of causing the reader/listener/spectator to enter the realm of the unknown. A visual poem. A poetic painting. A musical inspiration.
The second pair of Dominguez paintings and poems that will discuss includes a colorful acrylic entitled "Limbo de Rimbaud" and the poem "Balada del bandolero"

                                                              Limbo de Rimbaud

                                                        Balada del bandolero

          No es fácil encontrarse con un hombre que sea como Búfalo Bill

          pero que no sea Búfalo Bill.

          Que sea el hombre más fuerte de todo el estado de Michigan

          pero que no viva en Michigan.

          Que sea el más veloz de los vaqueros desenfundando su revólver

          pero que no tenga balas en el revólver.

          Que venga cabalgando desde las praderas y no tenga caballo,

          entre en una cantina y no tenga sed,

          pero que tenga piedad si alguien desenfunda

          sin más derecho que el de caer fulminado.

          Ciertamente no es fácil conocer a un hombre que sea como Búfalo Bill

          pero que no sea Búfalo Bill.

          Que sea respetado por los jefes sioux

          como aún se respeta en las montañas al águila blanca.

          Que sea el más hermoso de los amantes de todo el estado de Michigan,

          desde Minessota a Nuevo México,

          desde la hebilla de plata de su pantalón

          a las Montañas Rocosas de los predicadores del estado de Utah.

          Quiero decir que no es fácil enamorarse de un hombre

          que persiga cuatreros,

          que no es fácil acostarse con él y dormir en sus brazos

          y soñar con bisontes,

          que tenga una mirada salvaje

          pero no sea un salvaje.

          Un hombre en los alrededores de Búfalo Bill

          que no sea un viejo chacal olvidado bajo la placa de un sheriff,

          que asalte almacenes

          y compre flores los sábados con dinero robado.

          Un hombre que llame a la derrota derrota

          y al fracaso le llame fracaso.

          Quiero decir, eso quiero decir, que no es fácil.

The painting depicts a mythical vision of the Old West; mosto notable is its allusion to Native American and western icons which are suggested but not prescribed. While the large central figure in the work might represent a highly stylized and interpretative head of a Native American man, for example, its lack of specificity and amorphous quality lead the viewer's eye slightly to the right where two totemic features and a medicine wheel pay homage to Native American culture. The four elements of classical western culture- earth, air fire and water- are also implied in this pieces, as well as other organic elements. Upon closer inspection, one notes that nothing in "Limbo de Rimbaud" is firmly rooted, rather il all seems to be in a state of flux. Even the totems could be floating through a magical landscape or an underwater aquarium scene. The title of the piece, "Rimbaud' s Limbo", recalls the young French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, who spent his adolescence writing poetry which would cast him as a founder of French symbolism- a late eighteenth century movement characterized by a rejection of rigid forms, synesthesia, and an emphasis on suggestions, mood, and the personal.

The setting of Domínguez's poem "Balada del Bandolero", is the mythical American West where the poet has fallen in love with a man whose character defies classification. Her colorful and playful depiction of the rare breed of men who possess stereotypical but nuanced characteristics of manhood would lead the reader to focus on the object of her affection. However, this is not the point, as the reader will discover.

The first two lines of the poems,  "It is not easy to find oneself with a man who might be like Buffalo Bill/ but probably isn't Buffalo Bill" evoke the iconic and colorful figure of the nineteenth century Indian Fighter, buffalo killer, and showman. In the original Spanish, the use of the subjunctive ver sea (in English, "might", "could be") and no sea ( "might not be," "probably is not") leaves uncertain the identity of the man in question, but clearly purports to assign him in some way qualities associated with the famous icon of Old West manhood. These lines reveal that the narrator is taking stock of her situation as it relates to the unidentified man she is with, likely an intense, talented, somewhat unpredictable person who, she suspects, possesses immense power under the surface and who is a mystery to her. He remains on the fringes of society because he lives by his own "code" folllowing the stereotype.

Lines 3-10 "Who might be the strongest man in the whole state of Michigan/ but may not live in Michigan./ Who could be the fastest of cowboys drawing his revolver/ but may not have  bullets in his revolver./Who might ride along on horseback from the meadows yet might not have a horse,/ enter a cantina but not be thirsty / yet could be merciful if someone draw  his gun / with no more right than to be struck down." The man in question is the ideal - but not the stereotypical Marlboro Man, but rather one who has the strength of character and courage to acknowledge his vulnerability. The bullets missing from the gun could be symbolic of a different kind of weapon, perhaps the pen or the paintbrush, and Domínguez is implying that while he may be the greatest talent of his kind, he is out to do no harm. Rather, he sees himself in the failing of others, which further humanizes him.

Lines 11-14. "It certainly is not easy to know a man who might be like Buffalo Bill/ but probably is not Buffalo Bill. /Who is likely respected by the Sioux chiefs / as even today the white eagle is respected in the mountains." The repetition of this initial idea, now emphasized by "certainly", places the narrator in the foreground. She has moved from "finding herself" with the man to "knowing" him, while the emphasis on the difficulty she experiences contrasts with the more imperturbable description of the man, carried out entirely with the use of subjunctive verbs. Though the reader will recall that Sitting Bull was both a Sioux chief and, for a time, a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, the emphasis here is on the respect that the man is capable of eliciting from the most respected members of a society.

Lines 15-18 ."Who may be the most handsome of lovers of the whole state of Michigan, / from Minnesota to New Mexico, / form the silver buckle of his pants / to the rocky mountains of Utah's preachers". The reader perceives the narrator' s growing obsession with the man who, for her, represents an irresistible attraction. The emphasis on the narrator herself, who es assessing his appearance. She is the one who, in the next lines, claims that it is indeed difficult to be her.

Lines 19-31 : "I mean that it is not easy to fall in love with a man/who hunts down rustlers./

It is not easy to go to bed with him and sleep in his armas / and dream about buffalo, / a man who might have a savage look / but not be a savage. A man in the vicinity of Buffalo Bill /who may not be an old obsolete buzzard under a sheriff' s badge / but might hold up country stores7 and buy flowers on Saturdays with stolen money. /A man who could call defeat / and failure, failure. /I mean, that is what I mean, that is not easy."

The allusion to breaking the law - he is a bandolero - and buying flowers with stolen money gives the a romantic air, and ethical lines become blurred. The poet es painting with words, and the work is highly impressionistic. Whatever he is, se is attracted to him, and the attraction is both difficult and unstoppable.
The poet has advanced from "knowing" the man (line11) to falling in love with him, going to bed with him, and sleeping with him, i.e, her relationship with him has changed from attraction to intimacy. What has not changed es that his relationship es not easy for her. While she does not find fault with him, she stresses the difficulty his enigmatic persona presents for her, and the reader empathizes with her  as she feels at once awestruck and overshadowed - even diminished - by him. However, as the poem progresses, he becomes less elusive, more realistic and willing to reveal his vulnerability. He has perhaps faces and deal with failure.
Returning to the painting, the totems represent the narrator and her lover. There appear to be wrapped with leather or cloth, share similar color and pattern construction , and allude to a distinctive male and female presence. The close proximity and figurative size differences recall the poetry, in that narrator perceives both a distance between herself and the lover, and her diminished stature. There is a pre- Colombian sensibility in the work, and the Southwest is suggested by the dried- fly orange at the center of the work.
Like de painting, the poem's most salient quality is allusion. The narrator purports to feature a larger-than-life cowboy/bandit/lover who es a magnet of her, but she begins and ends the poem with the words, "it is not easy", focusing on her amorphous self the way the allusion to the Native American head occupies the center of the painting. Because she intentionally blurs the focus of her work, the reader and spectator will overlook it while seeing the more obvious, identifiable elements. But, as Domínguez says, "we think we know that we see, but there is always more there than we see" (interview with Dean- Thacker, June 25,2014). 

Works Cited

Domínguez, Alexandra. Web page alexcaroldom.com.

----------.  Alexandra Domínguez. Introducciones por María Nieves Alonso y Javier Bello.  Universidad de Concepción, Chile, 2007.

----------. Interviews with Veronica Dean-Thacker (June, 2009; March 13, 2014; June 25, 2014; and with Jack Girard, June 30-July 3, 2014).

Feal, Rosemary Geisdorfer and Carlos.  Painting on the Page:Interartistic Approaches to Modern Hispanic Texts.  Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1995.

Williams, William Carlos. Selected Poems. Ed. by Charles Tomlinson. New York: New Directions, 1985.

Zamora, Lois Parkinson.  “Interartistic Approaches to Contemporary Latin American Literature.”  Modern Language Notes, Volume 114, Number 2, pp 389-415.

____________________________________________

Submitted/authored by:

Dr. Veronica Dean-Thacker                             vdeanthacker@transy.edu

         Professor of Spanish

Mr. Jack Girard                                    jgirard@transy.edu

         Professor of Art