Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Natalia Lassalle-Morillo’s Unruly Subjects examines the Smithsonian Institution as a home for Puerto Rican cultural heritage. In 2022, as Smithsonian Artist Research Fellows, they gained access to the Teodoro Vidal Collection of Puerto Rican History at the National Museum of American History, and to Indigenous objects from Puerto Rico collected by Jesse Walter Fewkes at the National Museum of Natural History.
Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, and Carlos Soto Installation of “Unruly Subjects” in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution
Fewkes was a Smithsonian anthropologist sent to Puerto Rico as the Spanish–American War (1898) ended to collect Indigenous objects from the US’s new “possession.” Vidal was a Puerto Rican government official and self-taught historian whose gift of more than 3,000 works from the archipelago constituted one of the largest donations in Smithsonian history. Time spent in these storage spaces fueled the artists’ interest in the materials and design strategies used to protect and house Smithsonian objects.
Gallisá Muriente and Lassalle-Morillo’s research coincided with the establishment of Smithsonian’s Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns policy, prompting them to investigate its implications for Puerto Rican cultural heritage in diaspora and how their work could contribute to facilitating its return. Through a series of films, the artists trace these objects back to their places of origin, contrasting institutional spaces with the living histories and practices preserved
in Puerto Rico by countless individuals. Conceived with theater designer Carlos J. Soto, Unruly Subjects reimagines a storage facility by presenting objects from the Teodoro Vidal collection alongside works by contemporary Puerto
Rican artists using clay, cotton, and natural pigments—materials that have been integral to the archipelago’s inhabitants for centuries.
Artist collaborators include Karla Claudio, Carola Cintrón Moscoso, Beatriz Lizardi, Leila Mattina, Héctor
L. Pérez Barreto, and Rosaura Rodríguez. Videos filmed and edited by Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Natalia Lassalle-Morillo. Assistant Editor Laura Sofía Pérez. Sound design Juan Antonio Arroyo. Sound recordist Víctor Torres González.mAdditional camera work by Xhosa Fray-Chinn. Color correction Oswaldo Colón Ortíz.
Special thanks to Paulina Ascencio, Joshua Bell, Antonio Curet, Celia Emmelhainz, Casa Fantasmes, Rosa
Ficek, Dani Gracia, Mario Gracia, Nayarit Gracia Rodríguez, Reibo Gracia Vanasse, Amanda Guzman, Jake Homiak, Nancy Kenet Vickery, James Krakken, Gina Malley Campos, Carlos Martínez Palmer, Daisy Njoku, Emily Orr, Jomary Ortega, Abdiel Ortíz Carrasquillo, Katherine Ott, Marta Pérez García, Roberto Pérez Reyes, Julio Quiros, Ramón Rivera Servera, Reniel Rodríguez Ramos, Nina Lucía Rodríguez, Gisela Rosario Ramos, Soraya Serra, Fernando Schnitzer Krasinsky, Elena Vanasse Torres, Stephen Velázquez, Carlos Vélez Mercado, Cynthia Vidaurri, Ranald Woodaman, Ricardo Zeno, and the National Anthropological Archives.
This installation is made possible with additional support from Camp Tabonuco and the Headlands Center for the Arts.