The Ties That Bind

Puerto Rican artist Gabriella N. Báez combines family photos and archival materials into works that strike a deep, visceral chord. Yearning, after all, is universal.

- KIRA VON EICHEL

It's a faded color snapshot, like so many, of a parent and child together at the beach. But this one has dark red threads woven from the father's eyes to the child's, the child's hands to the father's, and so on, like a beginner's cat's cradle. For anyone who has ever lost someone, it catches you, stops you cold. It is a tactile, material, visceral expression of the connection you crave when someone, or something, is gone.