Edra Soto’s art brings with it the fabulous look and feel of tropical architectural solutions but not always the pain and difficulty of diasporic life.
CHICAGO — Edra Soto’s sculptures are lovely places to be inside: dappled light shines through walls made of ornate blocks or windows covered in decorative screens, casting shapely shadows that mingle with the free-flowing breeze. There might be a bench to sit on, a table to play dominoes at, or an architectural essay to read. If you’re really lucky, a slice of pineapple upside-down cake or some spam-velveeta-pimiento sandwiches will be on offer.
The mid-century Puerto Rican vibe of all that food and space is no accident. Soto, who has lived in Chicago since the late ’90s, was born in 1971 in San Juan and has for the past two decades been creating installations and events that draw on the culture of the place where she grew up and where her family still lives. She has done this in an increasingly elegant, pared-down style, whether the subject is Iris Chacon, a legendarily flamboyant ’80s television variety host who inspired Soto’s 2009 stage set of minimalistic tropical fruit-shaped benches; the US flag, which she remade in “Tropicalamerican” as a green-and-black amalgamation of tropical foliage and quilting patterns; or the domestic architecture of Puerto Rico, whose rejas (ornamental wrought-iron grates) and quiebrasoles (decorative concrete block fences) spawned GRAFT, a series of reliefs, sculptures, and standalone structures, ongoing since 2013.
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