EVAN ROSATO

WRITTEN BY NOAH RANDOLPH

A neon sign flickers. Though it spells Colombia, the top of the second “o” fizzles to reveal “Columbia.” The former derives from the Spanish “Colombo” and is a country in South America, while the latter comes from the Anglicized “Columbus” and is the namesake of innumerous cities and institutions in the United States. Though both are etymologically linked to Christopher Columbus, the language in which the word is written is a sign of something greater. Of course, language is inextricable from identity. The way we describe ourselves, form our opinions, and gather our ideas depend on vocabulary. How then, can one negotiate an identity caught between two languages?

For Evan Rosato, entering his grandmother’s home in Miami was tantamount to a foreign language. Both the spoken words and the visual surplus of the space stood in difference to those of his parents’ home, dominated by white Anglo culture, the English language and where Rosato’s identity was crafted. But it was in his grandmother’s home that Rosato came to see himself within what José Esteban Muñoz calls “the brown commons,” or “the commons of brown people, places, feelings, sounds, animals, minerals, flora, and other objects. How these things are brown, or what makes them brown, is partially the way in which they suffer and strive together but also the commonality of their ability to flourish under duress and pressure.”

The concept of the brown commons is at the center of Rosato’s practice, rendering Muñoz’s theory visual—literally investigating what makes brown. One of his main methods of investigation is flocking, a technique that adheres small nylon fibers to a surface. In time, Rosato found that the ultimate formula for brown flocking was a layered buildup of blue, yellow, and red—the colors of the flag of his grandmother’s homeland, Colombia. Applying these layers on top of the American flag, Rosato unifies the two sides of his identity while silencing the languages of both, leaving the ultimate signifier of heritage as a field of brown. The resulting texture, somewhere between velvet and rusted metal, is beyond language itself—somewhere between Colombia and Columbia

APPLYING LAYERS ON TOP OF THE AMERICAN FLAG, ROSATO UNIFIES THE TWO SIDES OF HIS IDENTITY WHILE SILENCING THE LANGUAGES OF BOTH, LEAVING THE ULTIMATE SIGNIFIER OF HERITAGE AS A FIELD OF BROWN.

AIR FORCE ONES (ASSIMILATION)

(far left)

Charcoal on En-Tout-Cas paper. 68” x 52.5”.

AN ANALOGY FOR BICULTURALISM; GRINGO 2 (center, l-r)

DECAY OF LANGUAGE (RUST) (near left)

Rusted steel, Sharpie marker, etching ink, wood, and screws. 60” x 24.31”.

Installation view.

Photo credit: Neighboring States.

FAMILIA PATINA (L); LATINO AMERICAN AND COLOMBIAN AMERICAN (TOP, BOTTOM); WINDOW TO MIAMI (R) (below)

Installation view.

FRAGMENTOS

(following page)

Ikea frames, thrifted frames, charcoal on paper, mixed media.

Dimensions variable.

Photo credit: Neighboring States.