After Hurricane Maria Hit Puerto Rico

After Hurricane Maria Hit Puerto Rico, which is a selection from a series of seven tessellations with different iterations, is related to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria on the Island of Puerto Rico which occured in 2017. This piece was influenced by Ai Weiwei’s large-scale tessellation wallpaper piece titled The Animal That Looks Like a Llama But Is Really an Alpaca, in which he utilized specific objects like handcuffs and security cameras in order to advocate for freedom of speech in China. Ai Weiwei is a contemporary Chinese artist and activist who has been arrested for criticizing the Chinese government. 

The impact of Hurricane Maria on the Island of Puerto as an event has a significant impact on my own life due to the fact that my family still lives on the island. Although I have never lived in Puerto Rico, I did heavily feel the impacts of the hurricane. I began to brainstorm different ideas to what images I could use to symbolize the different effects of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico.

My tessellation consists of four main elements: a water jug, fallen power lines, clouds, and the color blue. In this iteration the blue water jug represents the lack of food and water meanwhile its blue color is the same blue color of the tarps being used as roofs on the island thus demonstrating the hurricane’s damage on thousands of homes. The fallen power lines around the jugs of water represent the thousands of people left without power up to almost a year after the Hurricane and to this day the power grid in Puerto Rico is still faulty. The connecting element for each tile is a picture of storm clouds symbolizing Hurricane Maria.

I made this piece on Adobe Illustrator since it allowed me to more easily make this complex and repetitive piece.