Carlos Estevez Bottles to the Sea

Serves as a source for the exploration of many dimensions of the human experience in relation to other beings, ranging from machines and blueprints to mollusks and plants. This book presents the complex art installation of Cuban American artist Carlos Estévez, which deals with elaborate explorations on the metaphor of launching bottles to the sea. The artist launches one hundred drawings enclosed in bottles at different parts of the world at different times and occasions. After a short preface, acclaimed art critic and philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia provides an introductory essay in order to suggest possible interpretive avenues that may be used to delve into the symbolism of the installation. The rest of the book consists of color reproductions of Estévez’s drawings, which are accompanied by English translations of the text found in the drawings, as well as transcriptions of the original Spanish text. Jorge J. E. Gracia is Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. His many books include Painting Borges: Philosophy Interpreting Art Interpreting Literature; Images of Thought: Philosophical Interpretations of Carlos Estévez’s Art; and Identity, Memory, and Diaspora: Voices of Cuban-American Artists, Writers, and Philosophers, all published by SUNY Press. David E. Johnson is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He is the author of Kant’s Dog: On Borges, Philosophy, and the Time of Translation, also published by SUNY Press. Paula Cucurella is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.