A Card for J.R. Plaza

To create this work, Iñaki Bonillas pored over photographs, albums, and slides he inherited from his grandfather, J. R. Plaza. Included in the archive was a sheet of business cards, each corresponding to a position Plaza held during his professional life as a salesman. Intermixed among these were eleven cards Plaza designed and typed, representing professions he never held, including borreguero (shepherd) and modelo (model). Inspired by the cards, Bonillas paired several of his grandfather’s self-portraits with the fictitious business cards, playfully exploring Plaza’s interest in self-presentation and constructing a series of new narratives about his own family history. Bonillas also inherited Plaza’s typewriter, which inspired him to create one last business card: “self-portraitist.”

Credit: Latin American and Caribbean Fund