Jorge Alberto Cadi

Jorge Alberto Cadi - untitled

Technique: ink, collage and sewing on photography

Artist Biography: On the streets of Havana, Jorge Alberto Hernández Cadi is known as "El Buzo" (The Diver). This Cuban artist, like his brother, suffers from schizophrenia and is nicknamed "the diver" because he is constantly looking for material for his works among the abandoned objects of the city.Cadi uses containers such as suitcases, brass or wooden boxes to paste black and white photographs, which he retouches with a blue pen. In doing so, he transforms poignant family scenes into grotesque and even satanic images, where the characters lack faces or are characterized by diabolical features such as long ears, horns or claws. Far from addressing the theme of loss of identity, the torn faces reappear in a macabre manner in other parts of the composition, where they are not only glued, but also stitched to the support.Cadi expresses that these anonymous photographs from another era speak of emigration, departures, farewells and separations that marked his country. His predilection for suitcases also reflects these themes. "When you close the suitcase, you bring together people who have never seen each other before. They are going to travel... Sometimes in another dimension." It's also about what has been stitched together and disconnected, and what is repeated. "We're a bit stitched together by time," he says.Cadi is a lover of meditative gymnastics and martial arts, including karate, judo and Wing Tsun, as well as practicing collage, drawing and ceramics.Along with Misleidys Castillo Pedroso, Cadi is one of the most famous representatives of Cuban raw art.