Let There Be Light! (and Dark)
“Havana Light” and “Havana Noir” open Saturday at the PV Art Center
Americans by and large seem to have an image of Havana as it may have existed in the 1950s, with Latin big bands and sumptuous floor shows, fancy hotels with pulsating neon signs, and Ernest Hemingway at the corner bar soaking in the rich, tropical atmosphere. Even the crime and the poverty seem more alluring than alarming. But, as we know, the Revolution came along; Batista was out and Fidel was in, and in for the long haul.
During the two or three decades before that, Havana and other major cities in Cuba were eager to welcome burgeoning technologies. And neon lighting, says Adolfo V. Nodal, “was very much part of the urban landscape of the city.” Additionally, “like in L.A. or in the U.S., it became a symbol of modernism and, per capita, it had more signs than Vegas; it had more neon per capita than any other place in Latin America.”
Not surprisingly, a leader who always appeared in army fatigues and embraced Communism wasn’t likely to encourage the sort of splashy nightlife that made Havana a popular fun zone and tourist destination. The door slammed shut on that aspect of Cuba fairly quick.
And all those neon signs on all those gradually dilapidating buildings? As the years pressed on, the weather and the elements took their toll.
“In Cuba (the signs) deteriorated to the point where most of them are lost,” Nodal says. “But there’s still enough of them for us to go back and (revive) a little sliver of that history, to bring light back to the city and in that process beautify the city. That’s what the project is all about.”
The project? Keep reading.
Human lightning rods
Nodal, who was the general manager of the City of Los Angeles’ Cultural Affairs Department from 1988 to 2001, is sitting on a patio outside of the Palos Verdes Art Center with Cuban artist Kadir López. A few years ago they started a project called Habana Light Neon + Signs with the aim to restore the remaining historical neon signs in Havana.
Two new exhibitions are opening this Saturday at the art center, “Havana Light,” which documents the ongoing neon light restoration process, and “Havana Noir,” which is a large site-specific installation created by López specifically for this show and venue.
“Kadir is one of the leading sculptors and thinkers in Cuba,” Nodal says, “and it’s interesting that the artists are the ones pushing the envelope in terms of ideas and in finding new ways of making things happen. In many ways, they are redefining the country, and the artists in Cuba are like the social elite because they are the one that are traveling, they’re the ones bringing money back to invest in Cuba, and they’re the ones who are really making changes.”
Nodal, who is curating “Havana Light” and “Havana Noir” with PV Art Center director Joe Baker, met López in Havana about 15 years ago. Nodal himself had initiated a project several years ago in Los Angeles that led to the restoration of some 200 signs citywide, and it was that project, he says, which inspired him to join forces with López. They’ve already begun repairing or rejuvenating about 40 signs in Havana.
Referring to López, Nodal makes it clear: “He’s basically the person who’s going to be credited for bringing the light back to the city through his work.”
For his part, Kadir López wanted to take his art out of the studio and out of the galleries and bring it to the communities.
People, he says, are often reluctant to enter museums out of a concern that they aren’t equipped to understand or appreciate what they see. “I wanted to (bypass) that a little bit by putting some art in places where people will enjoy them” without feeling intimidated. “And that’s something that Havana is allowing me to do because it’s a city that absorbs very well any restoration in public places, and that’s good.”
“For us,” Nodal says, “it’s sort of a symbol of the change that’s happening in Cuba.”
Have a Havana
“Havana Noir,” on the other hand, is a multi-piece neon artwork arranged like a large Monopoly board set on a platform in the center of the upstairs gallery. “I tried to create the illusion of a game,” López says. “You’re in a room where you’re kind of playing and gambling and selling and buying the city again. It’s a visual interaction with several aspects of Havana.”
These aspects – three-dimensional neon objects on a “game board” – are recognizable from the collective imagination about Cuba: Tropicana ballerina? Check. A colorful 1950s automobile? Check, with other pieces that include a bag of money, high heels, a drum, a military hat, Uncle Sam’s hat, and a Tommy gun. Constructed with the assistance of Michael Flechtner, whose whimsical retrospective solo show, “This is Not a Sign,” can be viewed downstairs, “Havana Noir” takes us back to an earlier era without losing sight of the present and what’s possible in the future for a country that, in certain senses, is emerging from under the thumb of a long embargo. As Nodal notes, “Americans have started to realize that Cuba is not all that (the U.S.) is saying that it is. It’s a place like any other place, and we might not agree with the politics but the people are fabulous.”
While the work on view introduces us to an evolving or rebounding Cuba, it also romanticizes the country a little bit.
“The place is like living nostalgia,” Nodal explains, “with the ‘50s cars in the streets and the buildings with their patina on them. There’s a romance around the world about Havana. That’s sort of inescapable.”
And Cuban culture, of course, has much to recommend it. We need only look back upon bands like Los Van Van, Irakere, and Grupo Compay Segundo; or Cuban dance (the mambo, the rumba); Cuban food; not to mention art (Wifredo Lam) and literature: Alejo Carpentier, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, José Lezama Lima, and Reinaldo Arenas.
“Havana cannot escape the cliche of the ‘50s,” López says. “There was so much impact on the culture of the world (during that time) that people today approach the city by what they remember or maybe (were) told by someone else who remembers it. Somehow they hook it up to that era. I think the exhibition here is taking some kind of line in between past and future.”
As for the “noir” concept that underlines the show, and which here in Los Angeles evokes the stories of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, as well as James Ellroy…
“A lot of people are interested in Cuba because of the history of Cuba,” Nodal says, “and Cuba’s got a history that’s very noir like L.A. It’s got gambling, it has the crime. So, basically part of this approach that we’re doing is to make that history come alive for people who visit Cuba, and for the people themselves that are there. That’s the concept behind the show.”
Cuba is evolving, opening up. Does Nodal think that some of its unique history will be lost?
“I really doubt it,” he replies. “The Cubans themselves are very invested in the place and I think they’re going to demand that some of the beautiful parts of Havana are maintained and that they’re fixed up and made better, not changed.”
What he is hoping for that’s a bit different is an infusion of fresh ideas that can invigorate what’s already there. He mentions his hometown, the port city of Cienfuegos, where, his friends tell him, cruise ships have begun to arrive.
“All of a sudden there’s hundred and hundreds of tourists walking around the old plaza,” Nodal says. “It’s exciting, really, because it’s bringing oxygen into the place, it’s bringing new ideas and bringing new things to Cuba. I have a lot of faith that there’s a lot of smart Cubans that love their country, and they’re going to make sure that the country continues its historic trajectory, and doesn’t get homogenized by the U.S.”
That seems like the best course, doesn’t it? and something that’s been a long time coming. With that in mind, the new exhibition both acknowledges and celebrates the Cuba of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Havana Light and Havana Noir, curated by Adolfo Nodal and Joe Baker, with new work by Kadir López, opens with an artist reception and special event from 6 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1, in the Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 W. Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. The show runs through Dec. 31. The special event, Havana Noir: The Party, features live performances by salsa trio Changüí Majadero and Afro-Cuban ensemble BombaChante, along with the Kati Hernandez Cuban Dancers. Also, Cuban fare, rum, and cigars. Tickets, $125 now and $150 at the door, price all-inclusive. Tickets, information: Call (310) 541-2479 or go to HavanaNoirTheParty.com. ER
