Disciplines in Dialogue: Christian Casas x Carmen

To bring ceramic tile and opera into conversation may at first seem odd. What does a visual artist’s ceramic work have to say in relation to Bizet’s Carmen? In order to explore this question, Christian Casas was invited to bring a selection of artworks to display at the Cincinnati Opera YP’s recent Singers and Spirits: Carmen Uncorked. The Singers and Spirits series is a wonderful bite-sized way to enjoy a high art form in a more intimate setting; this edition was hosted by Revel Winery. 

Christian Casas reworks visual symbols of religious imagery and personal histories to address questions of choice and coercion, liberty and duress. Like Carmen, Casas deals with themes of emotional intensity in his work, as in his “I Can’t Get You Off My Mind,” (slide 3) and “untitled tile” (slide 5), both works centering on obsession and embodied passion. 

Carmen, the titular character in the opera is shaped and constrained by her identity, placing her in a vulnerable position to exploitation. Bringing these classic questions of how culture can shape identity into our current climate, Casas dives into exploration through his self-taught use of craft and storytelling. At the event, he spoke on this relationship his work shares with that of Carmen, saying: “My work addresses questions of freedom, power: particularly through migration histories and cultural identity which parallels the central conflict in Carmen where desire, jealousy, and autonomy collide.” 

Not only shaped by identity, both Carmen and the work of Casas are haunted by obsession and memory. As in his “untitled bowl” (Slide 6) and “untitled tile” (Slide 7), the motifs employed lend a sense of both innocence and entreaty that ask the viewer to consider who is free to give and take. How does possession relate to obsession? And who is caught in between?

Both Carmen, and indeed much of opera, and the imagery Casas employs is an exploration into the breadth of emotional intensity. Placed side by side, the experience at Carmen Uncorked worked to evoke the universal impulse to want that drives each and every one of us. 

About Christian Casas

Christian Casas is a first-generation Cuban American from Hialeah, Florida. Casas' curiosity about economic accessibility and labor connected to art making is in an effort to bridge gaps, collapse class boundaries, and question conventions about objects and accessibility of art and education.