Working with Puerto Rican-born artist Edra Sotol, SPA collaborated to deliver a new sculpture on the grounds of the future GATOP Arboretum and Education Center. This work is part of a series of ongoing representative vernacular architectural and artistic interventions that take the form of immersive installations and publications developed by the artist.

Titled GRAFT, the project references elements known as quiebrasoles, which are made of concrete blocks, and rejas, ornamental grilles or screens, found prominently at the artist’s native country. Its nature is privacy while defining the boundaries of domestic space, allowing for the representation of multiple states of visibility and invisibility.

Within the American context, GRAFT physically connects these existing architecture elements to a particular site while conceptually representing an imaginary transplant or migratory gesture.

GRAFT raises questions about Puerto Rican cultural memory which often masks the African heritage of the island as folklore.

The sculpture consists of a series of waterjet-cut corten steel screens which march up uneven terrain and define three small introspective spaces at the center of an abandoned early 20th-century marble quarry. The screens are designed to incorporate seating for one person. Tennessee marble was chosen for this element, cut and honed from a quarried but uncut stone found on site.