FATVillage Presents:
A show of works by Karen Graffeo with Esteban Jimenez Guerra “Tatico Cuban.” NARRATIVE EDITED BY KAMI SLOAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN EZRA
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“The alchemy of art functions to transform
In the early 1900s, erotic cards came to
In the mid-1920s, there was a collector’s
pain into beauty. What stirs my thoughts
Havana from France, which were very
boom of cards showing half-naked women
about these images are the socio-cultural
popular in the Old Continent. Factories
in provocative poses. Men carried cigarette
stigmas placed upon the feminine stan-
like Gener, El Cuño, Aguilitas, Nacionales,
packs in their pockets, and in them, a small
dards of beauty. The exhibition is meant
Eva, and Trinidad y Hno introduced these
hidden treasure could be enjoyed and shared
to challenge pervasive misconceptions
images on cigarette packs with later French
with friends at any time. We can only begin
and to see their contexts in a new light.”
reproductions in European style by Cuban
to wonder if a jealous wife who found these
—Karen Graffeo
photographers.
images entertained a boudoir photography
CONTEMPORARY CULTURE//MAGAZINE
