The sound-wave image basis for the sculptures in "Ahol: Full-Time."
Word had clearly gotten out about the opening of the latest addition to the alt art scene, Mercenary Square, in Little Havana. The art complex at Sixth Street and 12th Avenue was packed with art lovers and partiers, youngsters and oldsters who had come to see graf artist Ahol Sniffs Glue’s inauguration of the Mercenary space; performances by Misael Soto and Alan Gutierrez at the 6th Street Container space, run by Adalberto Delgado (a Knight Arts Challenge finalist); to stop in and see the work of Carlos Alves, who has a studio there; and to hear music DJ’d from a rooftop by Otto von Schirach and others.
In fact, this lively area in the heart, literally and metaphorically, of Miami, was as much a part of the scene as the artwork. The pink-colored sweets store at the corner was hopping, as were the variety of Latin shops, which were blaring all kinds of sounds from the Caribbean. When the beer ran out — which happened quickly with the amount of revelers — the bodega next door to Mercenary hauled out all the beer it could find, selling bottles for a $1.50 and likely doubling its income for the year. Fortified with a Presidente or a Heineken, people wondered in to the over-heated Mercenary space to ask the camouflage-attired Ahol just what his work was about.
Resin version of the sound waves.
What it is about is a combination of paper works, video, painting and, best of all, resin replicas of sound waves? These pieces hung on one wall were reason alone to be there this Saturday evening. Ahol took digital images of sound waves — said to be snippets of men talking about pornography, from the time the artist worked at a porno company — and turned them into 3-dimensional sculptures.
On the opposite wall, the other highlight of the show was comprised of a bunch of drawings, which gallery director, art critic and artist Carlos Suarez de Jesus described this way: “Some of these drawings he appropriated from a love-crazed kook besotted with one of the porn contract stars, who created really prosaic prose combining bible verses with odes to the starlets. [There are] pencil rubbings of pocket change, the Jagermeister logo and serial references to Moses descending from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments; The Moonshiner King of Alabama and Mr. Potato Chip; DirecTV; Frito Lay; and the Atlanta Gear & Axle Inc., where I think he works.”
Soto was dancing in the small 6th Street container, getting others to perform with him, while Gutierrez posed in the courtyard.
Yep, it was that kind of night. One great reminder that this corner of Little Havana should once again be a center for art and its corresponding invigorating life.
“Ahol: Full-Time” runs through March 11, Mercenary Square, 537 S.W. 12th Ave., Little Havana
