untitled2.2
2020
18 x 24 in.
photograph
“My self-portraits are me rolling and folding onto myself to lick my wounds, my tongue turns inwards and licks over and over with saliva made of nacre at the opening. My skin tapers and is inflamed with infection because of it. But Nacre creates a thicker epidermis, and horns protrude around my body to better defend itself.”
Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya is a 2020 grad in Sculpture + Extended media at VCU. Currently he sits drinking coffee with cinnamon by his bedside table and listening to Octavia Butler alien audiobooks, waiting for the dust motes of 2020 to settle. A fine film of dust where he can use his finger to show where the road leads next. For the moment he stands stoic and weary watching sculptures come down on monument avenue in Richmond, Virginia.