Rejas + Air Plants (series)

Laser-cut Clear Acrylic, Air plants, Monofilament, 2017

10″ H x 10″ W x 10″ D each

Rejas + Air Plants is a sculptural installation composed of laser-cut clear plexiglass panels welded into cage-like structures that reference the ironwork gates common to Antillean colonial architecture. These forms recall “rejas” and “marquesinas” as architectural devices that mediate between interior and exterior space, functioning simultaneously as protection, ornament, and boundary. By translating heavy iron into transparent acrylic, the work preserves the visual language of enclosure while emptying it of opacity, allowing structure, pattern, and restraint to remain visible. Each cage is designed to house a floating Tillandsia, an air plant native to the rainforest regions of Puerto Rico that survives without soil, drawing sustenance from moisture and air. Suspended within these rigid frameworks, the plants introduce a living counterpoint to imposed structure, evoking endurance, adaptation, and cultural continuity under conditions of constraint. The pairing of organic life with architectural containment positions the installation as a meditation on identity shaped through colonization, where survival often unfolds within inherited systems of control while quietly resisting.