Y Gallery is pleased to present Hector Canonge's "Golden Cage", a performance -installation project inspired by the 18th Century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and his observations of growing up and living in the USA. “Golden Cage,” evokes the lives and experiences of illegal immigrants who even though they may have material possessions, they lack the most fundamental of human rights, the freedom to move across borders without the fear of prosecution.

As an installation “Golden Cage,” is a life size cage made with fluorescent wires. The structure, in the dark box of the gallery space, confines the artist at its center allowing visitors to go around it and view his actions.  The performance consists of having the artist present for seven consecutive days during 5 to 8 pm. Every day, the artist will write and read his own stories about separation, displacement and belonging intercalated with his readings of Persian poetry about love and homeland.

Hector Canonge is an artist who lives and works in New York City where he studied literature, film and Integrated Media Arts (MFA 2006). His work incorporates the use of various media, commercial technologies, physical environments, cinematic, and performance narratives. He has been awarded scholarships by Harvestworks, fellowships by NJCU, and has participated in residencies at Atlantic Center for the Arts, AIM Program 27 at the Bronx Museum of Art, Newark New Media at City Without Walls, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences at Pace University, and The Wassaic Project. Canonge’s work has been featured at the Queens Museum of Art, Jersey City Museum, NY Studio Gallery, Exit Art, Gallery Aferro, Topaz Arts, Y Gallery, and other art spaces in the city and abroad. He’s been commissioned by the NYC Department of Transportation, The Queens Council on the Arts, Queens Museum of Art, Artists Unite, Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA), and has received funding awards from NYSCA, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council -MCAF Program, and NoMAA Regrant Program, made possible by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation. His work has been reviewed by the The New York Times, ART FORUM, Daily News, among others.

More information about the artist: www.hectorcanonge.net