For Not Yet Paved Wright converted a concrete truck into one of the largest musical instruments in the world. Bellowing the refrain of Helado Negro’s song “Young, Latin, and Proud,” this performative sculpture celebrates Latinx culture while pointing to the important role played by many Latin American immigrants in building our streets and homes.
The artist transformed the truck so its belly resembles the marímbula, a Caribbean plucked box instrument descended from the thumb pianos that made their way throughout Latin America by way of the African diaspora. Using sound as a political call to action, Not Yet Paved is conceived as a proclamation of pride and dignity, making visible the ethnic, racial, and economic undertones of our country’s labor practices in defiance of surging anti-immigrant nationalism.
Not Yet Paved was made possible with support from Oolite Arts.
