In "Insular Desire III," José Sierra explores Caribbean identity, the vulnerability of the male body, and the complex relationship between humankind and its island environment. Nudity here operates not from a merely erotic perspective, but as a state of dispossession and communion with primordial elements: water, wood, and marine life (the tarpon). The work subverts the idyllic, touristic vision of the Caribbean, transforming it into an intimate, ritualistic, and claustrophobic setting. The constant flow of liquid water between the fish and the body introduces a metaphor for the cycle of life, survival, and the insatiable thirst of a land surrounded by sea yet marked by isolation.
The artist was fascinated by certain images he had a connection with since childhood, transforming them into iconography, such as the image of a fisherman carrying a codfish of almost the same size on his back. This composition is complemented by the use of a dairy remedy, the traditional multivitamin "Scott's Emulsion." These iconic elements, which he grew up with in the 1990s, still exist and are a source of resonance, suggesting the artist thanks to the place where he conceived this series. "Insular Desire" is a reminiscence of his past. Sierra's current work continues to be based on his self-representation, from which he approaches a homoerotic perspective by configuring staged environments with objects in which he integrates himself as a "subject of aesthetic creation"
Male nude photography exploring Caribbean insular desire through childhood iconography and homoerotic self-representation. From Jose Sierra's Deseo Insular series, 2016. The Art Design Project, art gallery Miami Beach.
Male Nude Photography - Deseo Insular III, 2016 by Jose Sierra
From the series Deseo Insular
Deseo Insular III, 2016
Archival Pigment Print
DIMENSIONS:
Frame size: 41 H x 27 W x 2 D in.
Sheet size: 40 H x 23.19 W in.
Image size: 36 H x 22 W in.
Edition of 10
Black wood frame
Semi-Matte
Jose Sierra (b. 1991 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia) obtained his Master in Fine Arts from the University Institute of Fine Arts and Science of Bolivar (UNIBAC) in 2012 with a body of work titled Anti-Personnel Grids, which has since exhibited in different locales of Colombia. Shortly after, he was commissioned by the Colombian Ministry of Culture alongside the artist collective Si Nos Pagan Boys to participate in an urban art exposition titled, La Muerte Se Va de Vacaciones (Death is Going on Vacation) that was executed as a reaction to the traditionalism of Cartagena. In 2014, he exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Cartagena and in La Presentacion Casa Museo Arte y Cultura. He then exhibited in the Cultural Center Ciudad Movil in 2016 with a body of work created in collaboration with the Colombian photographer, Camo. In the same year, he was nominated for the International Luxembourg Art Prize for his recent work Self-Portrait. Sierra’s ongoing body of work continues to be based around his self-representation from which he addresses a homoerotic gaze through the configuration of abject staged environments that he merges himself within as “a subject of aesthetic creation.”
