by: John Rodriguez
According to Oscar Wilde, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life,” but for 35-year-old performing artist, Alicia Grullón, Art imitates life. Back in February 2007, within a makeshift shelter located in the woods several yards away from a Long Island Rail Road Station the body of a 20-year-old Honduran immigrant worker was found. The immigrant worker froze to death under the severe winter weather conditions. When news of the tragic discovery was released in news reports, Grullón was moved by the story that she decided to honor the tragically short life of the undocumented Honduran worker with a re-enactment art piece entitled, Illegal Death.
Held in Brook Park, Grullón will perform her latest piece which re-enacts the silent end of the young worker. When asked about the incident and the purpose of her performance piece, Grullón responded, “There were people around but no one really noticed. That anonymity was striking.” This is just one of many performances by Grullón. The performing artist from Highbridge, Bronx has created past pieces dealing with various topics like race, gender, class, and the need to embrace activism against the wrongs witnessed in her pieces.
When discussing her purpose behind her pieces, Grullón credits it to wanting to make, “people more aware of what is happening in their own backyard without them realizing it.” Using materials found within Brook Park, Grullón begins her piece by building herself a makeshift shelter, settle within it, and eventually die. And while “dead” the intention of her piece is for the audience to encounter her lifeless body as they walk through the park, “There is a lot of silence, I can feel their realization that this actually happened to someone.”
This past Saturday was the third time Grullón has performed this very piece and has performed it twice before in Van Cortlandt Park and at the Bronx Museum of Art.
