Jorge Alberto Cadi

Jorge Alberto Cadi - No title

Técnica: Ink, Collage and Sewing on Photography

Biografía del Artista: On the streets of Havana, Jorge Alberto Hernández Cadi is known as “El Buzo”. This Cuban artist, like his brother, suffers from schizophrenia and is nicknamed “el buzo” because he is constantly looking for material for his works among the abandoned objects in the city. Cadi uses containers such as suitcases, brass or wooden boxes to paste black and white photographs, which he retouches with a blue pen. With this, he transforms touching family scenes into grotesque and even satanic images, where the characters lack faces or are characterized by diabolical features such as long ears, horns or claws. Far from addressing the theme of the loss of identity, the torn faces reappear in a macabre way in other parts of the composition, where they are not only glued, but also sewn to the support. Cadi says that these anonymous photographs from another era speak of emigration, departures, farewells and separations that marked his country. His predilection for suitcases also reflects these themes. "When you close your suitcase, you bring together people who have never seen each other before. They are going to travel... Sometimes in another dimension." It is also about what has been sewn and disconnected, and what is repeated. "We are a bit sewn by time," he says. Cadi is a lover of meditative gymnastics and martial arts, including karate, judo and Wing Tsun, as well as practising collage, drawing and ceramics. Along with Misleidys Castillo Pedroso, Cadi is one of the most famous representatives of Cuban raw art.