Cowgenics

In the 1960’s and 70’s Fidel and his older brother Ramon were running experiments trying to create a super cow. This kind of neo-cow was supposed to be actualized by means of a series of crossbreeding executions using artificial insemination. The first product of any of two pure crossed breeds was called F-1. The throw out of a crossing between a F-1 and a pure breed was called F-2. The crossing of an F-1 and a F-2; was called a F-3. Between a F3 and a F-2 was called F-4. There could be some inaccuracies regarding the name of these ejections but there's no doubt that the program was implemented for years.

One of the paintings I made with this subject shows several laboratory vessels and a bull blowing out from one them like a genie coming out of an oil lamp. The bull is transparent and you can see the background through him, a flower stemming from his back. This is an allegory of the super-cow program started by the Revolution. A representation of tropical Cowgenics: La Nueva Vaca.

Another of the paintings that deals with the subject depicts a group of livestock against a landscape. Formally, the composition is derived from 17th century dutch painter Aelbert Cuyp's "Young Herdsmen with Cows." But the space is and the elements are conceived after American abstract expressionism, particularly Pollock and De Kooning, This by-polarity of the composition connotes the opposites forces of bi-culturalism that informs my Cuban-American identity.