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Los Carpinteros Flying Pigeon, 1998 , 72 x 144 x 6." (182 x 365 x 15 cm.) - Collection of the ASU Art Museum. Gift of Elaine and Sidney Cohen, Phoenix.

Los Carpinteros was, at the time that this work was produced, a team of three artists, all graduates of the prestigious Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. Alexandre Jesús Arrechea Zambrano (b. Trinidad, Cuba, 1970; now lives and works in Spain) Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes (b. Camaguey, Cuba, 1971; lives and works in São Paulo) and Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez (b. Caibarien, Cuba, 1969; now lives and works in São Paulo). Like many of their generation, their work has moved from commentary upon the specific Cuban dilemmas of shortages, bureaucratic obstacles, and inventive problem-solving to more universal concerns. The shift reflects their wider view of the world, the result of their success which has taken them to museums throughout the world.

The work shown here is a canonical example of work made in Cuba during the Special Period which began in 1994 in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and sudden cessation of the economic infusion it had injected into the Cuban economy, causing acute shortages of essential commodities such as food and fuel. To address the lack of fuel, Cuba imported thousands of bicycles from China, the brand name of one of which is Flying Pigeon. A fragment of Cuban economic history is referenced in the Victorian train. The Cuba railroad was created earlier than that even of Spain. But its function was not to serve as transportation for people but to ship sugar cane to the sugar factories. Here Alex is shown riding a bicycle. Is the bicycle being pulled by the train or is his labor pushing the train?

A mid-career retrospective, Inventing the World, originated at the Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida, Tampa, in 2005, and toured to the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago. They have shown their work in the UK, Los Angeles, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Finland, and Spain. The ASU Art Museum showed their work in Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island, which toured to nine additional venues in the United States. (See Past Exhibitions and Publications) They are represented by Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, and Anthony Grant Inc., NY.