Lil Ray Statuette

Lil Ray Statuette is a personal project based on Valentino's family history and legacy in the foreground of contemplation.  Valentino embarked on multiple iterations of work to memorialize them beyond the negatives, photo prints, and polaroids that sat in moving boxes. During this process, the inspiration to create a body of work based on a small statue made in memory of his late Uncle Ray Solis (January 11th, 1967-May 1st, 1989) occurred. The conception of an art-based memorial transcended straight photography and became enriched with a cohesive application of augmented reality, video animation, and composite figures printed on paper.  Darkroom photography prints (figure 1) were made with 8” X 10” digital prints on transparency sheets as negatives, the darkroom prints dry-mounted on mat boards, and the use of digital print technology combined with analog print mechanisms (enlargers) unified past and present as a manifestation of time. This notion of time is also embedded in the composite figures (figure 2). The 14 darkroom prints are frames from the video animation, Life Too Soon, 2023 (figure 3).  In addition to the multiple iterations, a strong sense of collaboration and a shared value of family belonging nudged Valentino to invite his cousin Kathleen Romero as a collaborator and participant in the augmented reality work titled Lil Ray Virtual Memorial, 2024 (figure 4).  This joint effort reinforced the familial nature of the project.

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Figure 2

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Figure 4

Lil Ray Virtual Memorial 2024 is a site-specific augmented reality textual, conceptualized, and collaborative memorial to the late Ray Richard Solis; born, on January 11th, 1967; and died on May 1st, 1989. Together with Valentino’s prima Kathleen Romero, they delivered an embrace to his memory through loving missives and photographic imagery of their uncle whose life transcended the physical realm at 2nd Street and Santa Clara Street. His death was an unpredictable and pivotal event.

Similar to the all too common arrangements of candles, clustered, and adjacent to pictorial objects of someone’s family member who passed on, at that site– this virtual object was placed via QR codes in multiple spaces at 2nd Street and Santa Clara Street.

It was important for Valentino to make this final iteration of The Lil Ray Statuette Project 2024 which began at Kala Art Institute because it was fitting to have an ending predicated on Lil Ray’s final moments (though he was pronounced dead at then-San Jose Hospital, east of the accident on Santa Clara). The Lil Ray Statuette Project was conceived during the documentation of old family photographs, letters, and other heirlooms (the statuette) that were underway, via, scanning and photography in the documentation room and digital arts lab. Moreover, it was made as a means for Valentino to finally settle down and appreciate the life of his late grandmother Rose Felan, Lil Ray’s mom. She passed away on January 28th, 2022. She was a pillar of his life and a fresh reminder whenever he visited her that they were– Chicano/a– and then her disposition as an orator of her/our family history would abound.

Inevitably, the Lil Ray Virtual Memorial 2024, The Lil Ray Statuette Project 2024 is a tribute to his uncle Ray’s memory, his grandmother Rose’s memory, and the knowledge and future of their familial legacy, cultural, and longstanding place in San Jose, CA.

In consideration of the conceptualized area of this video: it was interesting to imagine what an abstraction of Lil Ray’s visual field may have looked like while he lay injured, on the ground, coming to terms with his abrupt departure. On the opposite ends of the vertically fixed augmented text and imagery are multiple photographs of 2nd Street and Santa Clara Street, taken from different vantage points. Playing at high-speed rates the outlines of every object within, altered, and abstracted in mosaic-like formations ease in and out of clear view. A take on the phenomenon known as photopsia.

Scanners and photography documentation of artifacts, old family photos, and letters were critical recording mechanisms Valentino used to digitize objects at high resolution and conducted at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA.