The Million-Petaled Flower of Being Here | Edgar Serrano

The Million-Petaled Flower of Being Here is a writing project by author/artist Jacquelyn Gleisner, who will interview a range of artists from different backgrounds and ages to present a nuanced picture of how artists change over the span of their careers. This project is one of our Older but Younger Special Commissions.

“A small boy looks up at a television screen inside a detention center at the Mexican-American border. He’s watching Casper the Friendly Ghost, a cartoon about a ghost trapped between two realities. The child is surrounded by others, yet he seems alone and unsure of his surroundings. Inside his Erector Square studio, Edgar Serrano described feeling struck by this image in a New York Times article last year. He remembers looking across the room at his own son, who was around the same age. Comparing these two children—one safe and the other displaced with an uncertain future—triggered introspection for Serrano, whose parents entered this country illegally from Mexico. “If it weren’t for my son, I don’t know if reading about the detention centers would have been as visceral and profound of an experience,” explained Serrano. ” Continue Reading on Connecticut Art Review

Artspace will print excerpts from these interviews in a section of the printed City-Wide Open Studios guide, and the full interviews will be available on Gleisner’s online art blog, Connecticut Art Review.