As part of PLAySPACE's Spring 2011 programming, curator Susannah Magers has invited ChuCha Santamaría Y Usted to participate in an ad hoc "residency" in the PLAySPACE project room from February 7 through February 18. Come by to listen to the album, watch music videos, and immerse yourself in ChuCha's world:

Baby, Remember My Name is a testament to Caribbean identity, as compromised by ideas surrounding the Caribbean diaspora, through the creation of a concept album and installation space. The album exists now in two EP forms (Lamento Borincano and Baby, Remember Your Name) and is performed through and by the group ChuCha Santamaría Y Usted. These performances give life to simultaneously occurring narratives, borrowed from family photographs and Caribbean histories through the lens of dance music.

Giving voice to these narratives through dance music—the Caribbean immigrant experience and that of similarly marginalized gay and black contingencies upon arriving in the states—this installation uses the language of glamour, and the auditory modes of pop music, to explore mutable identities. The same photographs used to create the visual narrative of the album also serve as the source for photo-paintings designed to inform the domestic chronology of ChuCha. Three music videos, Fiebre Tropical, Dip-Si Dai-Ver, and Grito De Lares Ridox, play as traces of Chu Cha’s performances. Baby, Remember My Name, is a space that serves as the receptacle for the 'remixed' photographs, music videos, ephemera and promotional materials which constitute the constructed mythology of ChuCha. The space acts as a facsimile of a superfan's room and a dressing
room, potentially belonging to ChuCha herself.

ChuCha's "residency" will culminate with a live performance on Friday, February 18 at 7:30 p.m. in PLAySPACE. Please join us!

PLAySPACE is free and open to the public. Gallery hours for the duration of this exhibition are Monday 12–3 p.m. and Wednesday 11 a.m.–2 p.m. (and by appointment). For further information, please contact codirectors Amanda Hunt and Liz Glass at playspace@cca.edu or see PLAySPACE on the CCA website.