This poster was inspired by Dulce MarÍa Loynaz’s poem CII, translated to English by James O’Connor, that reflects the internal exile of the author.
The design approach is totally introspective and strongly linked to the concept of dreams and memory. The idea of a raw box, homemade, and full of memories accumulated over time, tells the difficult story of those who emigrate and too often experience the feeling that their dreams “are beginning to look like caged birds.”
Due to the closeness of the cropping, the viewers are therefore, totally immersed in the box, as if they were opening it and project their dreams inside. Memories collected across years are set one on the others in a chaotic manner almost to dictate a sense of bewilderment and continuous wandering, into an aged box. Then, the poem blends and integrates itself inside the box as a fundamental part of these dreams, like a note handily written in the back of a postcard to underline how those words strongly touched the owner of that box. Finally, the sepia color creates a delicate effect while underlining at the meaning of the words.
Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our actions. Through memories, we can be projected instantly into the past. Rethinking who we were, and the time that passes. The intent to highlight it is to show what you were next to what you are and listen to what one has to say about the other, measuring the difference. Indeed, perhaps memory is precisely that difference. To find the strength to not get tired and try to keep on flying, remembering why and how we got where we are.
CII. By Dulce MarÍa Loynaz
Pajarillos de jaula me van pareciendo a mÍ misma mis sueños.
Si los suelto, perecen o regresan. Y es que el grano y el cielo
hay que ganarlos; pero el grano es demasiado pequeño y el cielo es
demasiado grande…, y las alas, como los pies, también se cansan.
