Luis Vasquez La Roche

Lives and works in Trinidad and Tobago and Virginia

Artist statement

My practice is interested in aspects of the transatlantic slave trade that are echoed in varying ways in the present. They employ different materials and media to articulate what Saidiya Hartman calls the “Autobiographical example, which is not a personal story that folds onto itself; it’s not about navel gazing, it’s really about trying to look at historical and social process and one’s own formation as a window onto social and historical processes, as an example of them.” An essential part of my research is an inquiry into materials associated with the history of the slave trade. I employ these materials in my work to articulate aspects of race, identity, culture, politics, and spirituality. Some of my works are installations that require a live component for activation, others are sculptural, and occasionally these objects become part of a live performance. My practice also draws inspiration from Afro-syncretic Orisha traditions, where objects, gestures, and rituals are not merely symbolic but are portals to memory, healing, and transformation. In many ways, the presence of these practices reminds me that materials carry spirit, and that the activation of a work can resemble ritual invocations of continuity, survival, and ancestral knowledge. A big part of these rituals and traditions spills over to carnival. The music, traditional characters, and some of the materials used in the traditional carnival come from real stories of oppression, suffering, and death. A good...

Artwork