Conversation with Jorge Pineda

Jorge Pineda
Afro issues
Installation
2006-2009

Jorge Pineda

Born in the Dominican Republic in 1961.
Now living and working in the Dominican Republic.

Carlos Garrido Castellano: How did you get your start in drawing?     

Jorge Pineda: I have always been drawing since I was very young: I don’t remember starting at a particular time. But now that you mention it, yes, I do remember. My mother was a teacher. She set up a blackboard on the terrace of our house and divided it with chalk into six sections. One section for each child. I wanted to do bigger drawings, I needed more space and so I had to negotiate with my brothers and sisters. My twin sister lent me her section and the others, who were also twins, rented theirs to me. Since they liked my drawings, they ended up leaving the whole board to me.

C. G. C.: How do you define identity in your work?

J. P.: The theme of identity is present in my work, sometimes as the

Afro Charlie
installation
2009

central theme, sometimes as a secondary theme. I first became conscious of it in the immigration control room at the Miami Airport, when an inspector laughed because my skin color said “Indian color” in my passport. I was 24 years old and it was the first time I realized that we Dominicans had invented a color without questioning the ridiculousness of the situation. This was basically due to a national complex, which very superficially assumed the concept of “being Dominican” by isolating ourselves from the contexts that had constructed it. That was when I began to examine this issue from every angle, such as sexuality, gender, etc.

C. G. C.: How do you allude to the topic of childhood?

J. P.: I had a happy childhood, though looking at my work, one might think the opposite. The images that I use sometimes deal with the theme they illustrate, but at other times, they are only a metaphor for society, a society that refuses to grow up and prefers to behave badly rather than assume its responsibilities. The spectators decide according to their own references. My responsibility as an artist is to make spectators open their eyes anew. To make them see this everydayness that has become invisible to them because it is always before their eyes.  

Jorge Pineda
Me Voy
Installation
2005

C. G. C.: How do you use the contrast between what is hidden and what is shown?

J. P.: I am an admirer of Jung, the psychoanalyst. In one of his propositions, he talks about shadow as the part of the individual that belongs to his or her nature but the individual refuses to accept it for what it is and sees it as something negative, a source of conflict. This conflicting, disturbing dialogue interests me as a way of depicting not only the individual but also society. It is a theme that I treated in the Niñas Locas series, which is made up of portraits of a few women friends and of my anxieties.