None of the Above

"I see this work as part of a bigger investigation on the relation between aesthetics and politics. I also see it as part of a recent series of works about the history of Puerto Rico since it became a territory of the United States, in 1898. Re-looking at the history of Puerto Rico since the U.S. invasion, and the colonial relation between Puerto Rico and the United States, I ask myself: How has this history been represented? How can one represent this history in a way that makes the viewer re-think this relationship?

The question 'How can art contribute to the formation of Puerto Rico’s national identity?' is something that arose from my creative process. This piece addresses the issue of Puerto Rico’s current political status and the debates surrounding this issue. Puerto Rico has been an American colony since 1898, and the island remains an unincorporated territory — it belongs to but it is not part of the United States. Puerto Rican people have been American citizens since 1917, so the colonialism and the American citizenship define Puerto Rican history. Puerto Rican politics revolve around whether the Island should be Independent, a State of the Union, or continue as a Commonwealth.

There is a constant tension between the United States government’s effort to maintain the colonial status quo and the Puerto Rican people's desire to end colonial domination or reform it. What are the solutions to the colonial dilemma of Puerto Rico? Is the current plebiscite process a solution to the problem of Puerto Rico?

For None of the Above, I carried out a research at the Comisión Estatal de Elecciones library, in Puerto Rico, where I found copies of the status referendum ballots and got the ballot boxes that were used in Puerto Rico during the elections and referendums. I also researched online for the total of votes for each referendum, and to find material about the parties and their programs.

By placing the ballots from the 4 referendums on Puerto Rico’s political status, the viewer can see how the definitions of the 3 options (independence, State of the Union and Commonwealth) change with each referendum. Besides, by having the totals of votes for each referendum in the ballot boxes, the unresolved issue and the indecision that is characteristic of the relationship between Puerto Rico and United States become visible. The ballot box is intended to represent a form that generates something that has not been able to be generated. The form of the work brings up questions about the information that is not contained there."

Monica Rodriguez in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (July 2015)