The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Modeling the role of cultural anthropologist and detective, Lizania Cruz investigates the expurgation of African legacy within her native Dominican Republic through a body of work titled the Investigation of the Dominican Racial Imaginary, 2020–ongoing. The video Opening Statement, and her new sculpture, Evidence Shelf, operate, in Cruz’s words, like a “criminal investigation.” Combining testimony from on-site research she conducts in Santo Domingo and various other locations throughout the DR with archival footage and material evidence she gathers, Cruz uncovers “the state-sponsored way in which the Dominican imaginary is shaped in order to maintain oppressive racial constructs.” Her guerilla actions offer a counternarrative that both excavates and opposes the displacement and destruction of African tradition on the island and within the greater Dominican diaspora.