2023-09-15 18:15:00
In an interview with DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS, Asahel, born in Havana, recalled that since he was young he approached art with the amazement of someone who opens the doors to an ungraspable space. “It was my father who said that I had to draw,” he said. With that support, he studied at the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts, where he specialized in Engraving and Drawing. In addition, he studied Mandarin Chinese at the Abraham Lincoln School, in Havana’s Vedado.
“I am very proud of that process,” he said of those years of deep study of techniques and artists, while delving into ballet and martial arts. He also highlighted that the work of many teachers “transcended the credits that the ‘revolution’ wants to acquire.” [castrista]. They, in themselves, constituted the institutions, and they were the ones who gave me security for the rest of my life, among them the teacher José Antonio Pérez Olivares.”
Although he was looking for a unity, Asahel wanted to master several aspects: “I ended up learning kinesiology, massage, acting, but I was scattered, and now I think it was a fruitful investment because it will allow me to bring to painting all these sensations that I experienced, which I believe that otherwise I mightn’t carry it with that vividness. Organically I lived as a dancer and now I can draw what a dancer feels practically in a calf or a foot.”
Goodbye to the island
In 1989, before the start of the so-called ‘special period’ that led the island to a deep crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Asahel knew that his destiny was far from Cuba. It all started from a bitter experience. Thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin Chinese and Chinese culture in general, that year he received an invitation to travel to China, but some last-minute changes by the leaders of Culture (an entity governed by the Castro government) ruined his dreams. of the.
“I found out from a letter that the trip had been canceled because of the Tiananmen demonstrations; but other people’s children, sing [dirigentes comunistas]As we said in Cuba, they had been able to go. I said: I have to leave Cuba because they are blocking me wherever I want,” she concluded.
“I was trying to go on a raft. I literally went to international waters without frog legs. “I learned to swim on the boardwalk and I had absolutely no fear when facing those dark waters,” she said.
But his mother was afraid. With her heart in her hand, from a window in a building on the boardwalk, where her family lived, she watched him walk away from her until her figure disappeared into the horizon. It was her mother who arranged for her son to leave, and her option was to go to Moscow, “to a supposed wedding that never happened.”
The path of the exile
There he began a dangerous journey that led him to jump from a train car in Russia to the car of a train going to Germany. “I jumped with my suitcase because the cars were separating and this train had to go to Hannover (Germany) where I had to meet a couple.”
In Germany, Asahel lived an episode that he will never forget. “There is a moment that was peak. I was left alone in a snowy meadow, with a suitcase full of books, and I said: what do I do? And there a meditation occurred that I always have with me, it is what protects me, I said: there will not be anything worse than this.”
The books he carried were mostly Chinese dictionaries, study notebooks, and some drawings.
After living for a time in a subway station in Germany, he obtained a parole to travel to the United States. Once in Miami, journalist Luis Franco taught him English, a language that he also perfected in the classrooms of Miami Dade College, and that he remembers with great gratitude.
From there she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she continued her studies at Northeastern Illinois University, and continued working not only in the visual arts, but also in dance, with the mentorship of dancer Ann Newlin Holmes. She later worked with ballet instructor Homer Hans Bryant, former director of the Dance Theater of Harlem. She lived in Chicago for regarding 17 years, until she settled in South Florida.
As a dancer, he has participated in the Miami International Ballet Festival, the Miami Hispanic Ballet, Maximum Dance Company, and the Florida Grand Opera, sharing with Vladimir Issaaev and Ballet Teacher Magaly Suárez.
Additionally, his thirst for knowledge led him to study at the Soma Institute of Chicago, where he obtained a diploma in Clinical Massage Therapy in 2003.
“I was very interested in massage. I had seen a masseuse perform at a gym and was impressed. I dedicated myself to studying the massage at a level of detail, and with the pairing of the dance it was phenomenal. When dancers dedicate themselves to massage, they are the best because they establish contact with the body, they manage to master the pain and control how the person perceives the pain,” she revealed.
At this point it should be noted that Asahel has been a therapist for classical ballet figures such as Lorena Feijóo, Adiarys Almeida, Carlos Acosta, Taras Domitro, and the opera director Sarah Coburn, among others.
Paint the movement
Asahel prefers not to opt for an aesthetic line, as he enjoys moving between different visual languages. “I’m not satisfied with one style,” she pointed out. And he added: “I was greatly influenced by the prints I saw by the German expressionists, draftsmen and engravers. “Chinese calligraphy for me was like the affirmation of a constant exercise of the pulse, it is a habit that creates a skill to counteract, say, the physical work of massage.”
When delving into his vision, he declared that “the same dance expression forces me to be not just a pen painter, I navigate between this and the more gestural things, a product of dance, which forces me to let go and do something that has to do with with gestures. The same addiction or habit of being a physicist forces me to travel from a stopped work to a looser work.”
But there is an aspect in its creation that deserves a separate point: “From a stylistic point of view I might talk regarding something that we have called Loose Ink (or loose ink), which has been like a kind of conspiracy between Chinese calligraphy, German expressionism and drawing.”
Echappe, a piece by Asahel Rosales, within his loose ink technique. Courtesy of the artist
Echappé, a piece by Asahel Rosales, within his loose ink technique.
Courtesy of the artist
In it Loose Ink The gestural and certain strokes of Chinese ink coexist. It is also the result of decades of work on the body, of mental discipline exercises and a domesticated pain in the gesture and the line. Therefore, to delve into his universe is to realize that “the superior man loves his soul,” in the words of the philosopher and writer Lin Yutang.
His plastic work has been exhibited in spaces such as The Chicago Cultural Art Center and the Museum of Science and Industry. In addition, several of his pieces are part of private collections, such as those of immigration lawyer Wilfredo Allen, dancer Taras Domitro, architect Ron Zriny, among others.
In 2007 he was invited to participate in the exhibition Killing Timeat Exit Art, New York, where he personified Fidel Castro in a controversial performance that many still remember.
After the protests of July 11, 2021 in Cuba, Asahel created a large-format work titled “José Martí, El Apóstol,” which he took to the streets of Miami to participate in exile activities.
José Martí, The Apostle, a work that the artist made to take to the 11J protests in Miami. Courtesy of the artist
“José Martí, El Apóstol”, a work that the artist made to take to the 11J protests in Miami.
Courtesy of the artist
Art, for Asahel, “is an addiction, it is a passion, an obsession.” As he indicated, “I am almost certain that one is born with a direction, regardless of whether one does what one wants to do to prove the opposite, you have certain inclinations. It is a genuine interest in continuing the search for a pictorial language, which is always evolving.”
Regarding his future projects and possible exhibitions, the artist announced that he plans to continue developing his works focused on the study of the dancer’s body, as well as works that reflect the vicissitudes of Cubans in search of freedom.
Her dance-inspired pieces would be perfect for a display at Miami City Ballet’s home theater. And on the other hand, her pieces related to the journey of the Cuban exile would have a perfect space in the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, an essential visit center so as not to forget the history of Cubans outside the island.
“I have never been satisfied with believing that I have found some path and I think that is precisely what has kept me working,” said the artist.
To learn more regarding his work you can visit the website: asahelarts.com
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