María Magdalena Campos-Pons (born July 22, 1959[citation needed]) is a Cuban-born artist based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Her African ancestors, who were brought over by sugar plantation owners in the late 19th century, passed down traditions from Africa that influenced and became part of Campos-Pons's art.
[4] The ISA allowed students to be exposed to international artistic movements and develop art that drew from Cuba's unique "mixed traditions and cultures.
[14] As there was no larger feminist movement in Cuba, it was only through the expression of art through artists like Campos-Pon and others that feminism was kept in the spotlight and popular consciousness.
Santería is a spiritual practice which was developed by African slaves in Cuba by combining influences from Yoruba and Roman Catholic religious systems.
Sound for the installations often used Leonard's music incorporating fragments of Campos-Pons voice and field recordings, often heard via speakers that surrounded visitors.
"[17] Campos-Pon is interested in showing "crosscultural" and "crossgenerational" themes dealing with race and gender as "expressed in symbols of matriarchy and maternity.
[9][25] By the time they met in 1988, Leonard had created sound for video installations and performances by Tony Oursler, Constance De Jong and Sam Durant.
She collaborated with Leonard to incorporate spoken word, music and field recordings into the work, and expand her practice to include time-based presentation.
[9][10] Leonard called on leading practitioners of Cuban religious music to play for their installation, video and performances including Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Los Hermanos Arango, Ramon Garcia Perez (Afrocuba de Matanzas), Roman Diaz (Yoruba Andabo) and Oriente Lopez to perform with them.
[10][29][30] From 2010-2017, Campos-Pons created their most mature collaborations, balancing a sonic/visual content and ideas, and integrating the audio sources into sculptural components.
His work with Campos-Pons included recordings and performances made in collaboration with butchers, bartenders, street criers, former dock workers and folkloric ensembles.
[26] Leonard and Campos-Pons' Installations and processions of this period were co-authored (commissioned, planned and executed as a team), including "Llego Fefa,"11 Bienal de Havana; "Habla Madre," Guggenheim Museum; "Alchemy of the Soul," Peabody Essex Museum; "Identified," Smithsonian Institution National Portrait Gallery, "53+1=54+1+55.
Art critic Holland Cotter describes Leonard's composition for the Cuban Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale as a "haunting, rhythmic, chantlike score, secular spiritual music for a New World".
"Letter of the Year" addresses issues of home, migration, the necessity of finding and redefining the meaning of permanency and locality.
Outside the cages one hears recordings of street criers, known as pregoneros, a reflection of the increased liberalization of small businesses that exists within a void of corporate control.
"Spoken Softly with Mama"combines elements of sculpture, painting, photography, performance, sound, and video to explore her African/Cuban roots and to address themes of gender, race, family and history.
[9]"Unfolding layers of history and experience, Campos-Pons brings to light the ephemeral qualities of everyday lives and untold stories.
The work explores the sonic landscape of Matanzas, from the harbor neighborhoods where iconic musical forms were born to remote estuaries where one imagines Cuba as it sounded before human intervention.