“Humor is a way to counteract feeling helpless, no?” – Carlos Franco Maldonado

Carlos Franco Maldonado: ay. ai. aí. is a playful look into the complexities, recurring motifs, and paradoxes of Puerto Rico–an island in constant struggle for agency in a post-colonial world. In a carefully choreographed multimedia installation Maldonado explores the convergence of nature and culture into a media landscape by mapping the improbable connections between the internet memes of the North American alt-right, the rise of cryptocurrencies in the Caribbean, and the climate change induced disappearance and migration of the Puerto Rican-native coquí frog. 

An artist who works across disciplines, Maldonado considers the components of this installation as an “archipelago” that creates a complex system of interrelations, resembling a deconstructed landscape of the caribbean region, that takes into consideration the infrastructure, economies,  climate, and media that shape it. The installation includes a banana tree, a functional waterworks sculpture, and choreographed video projections sourced from mass and social media. 

Together the works act as a model that reflects the delicate balance of stability and fluidity that define the Caribbean region, the spooky interconnected logic of contemporary life, and the artist’s own connection to and migration from Puerto Rico.

As the exhibition unfolds, Maldonado will be planning and seeking collaborators for a performance to be staged during Puerto Rico day in Buffalo. 

About the Artist

Carlos Franco Maldonado is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Maldonado holds a bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Visual Art from the University of Puerto Rico and a masters in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. His works and projects have been presented at the Lab, SOMArt’s Cultural Center, and The Thing Quarterly in San Francisco; at Lvl3 Gallery in Chicago; Nikolaj Kunshal, Copenhagen, DK; Quinta del Sordo, Madrid, SP; and Universidad de Medellín, Medellín, CO among others. He’s currently resident at ISCP in Brooklyn, NY. cfrancomaldonado.com

About the Series

The 2020 exhibition season at BICA is an exploration of humor and its use in contemporary culture. How do artists use humor to reframe local and global narratives, probe questions about personal identity, and radically reconsider popular culture? Can a joke be weaponized? Can humor be used to rewrite history? Can a laugh bring down the government? We’ve invited Carlos Franco-Maldonado, Lex Brown, and Kate Rhoades to exhibit work and realize projects based around how humor is used to make a difference in the world, and we invite others to propose projects, open mics, meme workshops, and other activities that can simultaneously bring levity and action to Buffalo in this polarizing election year.