Edra Soto: ‘This kind of architecture lives in the background’

In her series Graft, Edra Soto has been mining visual iconography from her upbringing in Puerto Rico, namely the wrought iron fences (rejas) and breeze blocks (quiebrasoles) that are ubiquitous in the island’s residential architecture and were prominent features of Soto’s childhood home.

 

In recontextualising these domestic motifs within public sculpture, she asserts that a typically overlooked visual language is worthy of our attention while carrying out an intimate play of public and private, placing elements of her life and memory into communal settings to be engaged with by viewers, as if she were welcoming us into her home. The latest iteration of Soto’s Graft series, through a Public Art Fund commission, goes on view at the south-east corner of Central Park this month.

 

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