The Poetry Project

Poesía Popular

Abigail Reyes

Poesía Popular
Abigail Reyes, 1984.
El Salvador, La Libertad.

This project extracts popular phrases from the proclamations of street vendors and merchants, and designing painted signs that emulatethe old-time trade of markers and letterers on the walls of the city, oversizing the everyday that surrounds us. In principle, these are phrases typical of jargon such as that of the center of San Salvador, which, when extracted from the proclamations of street vendors, informal traders or popular sayings, acquire a poetic dimension, a kind of "popular poetry", charged mainly with black humor, but also of sentimental, sexual, political and gender connotations.

Concretamente, el proyecto consiste en extraer frases del lenguaje popular, de los pregones de vendedores y comerciantes informales y diseñar rótulos pintados sobre paredes emulando el viejo oficio de los rotuladores y letristas, en las paredes de la ciudad, sobredimensionando aquello cotidiano que nos rodea. En principio frases propias de una jerga como la del centro de San Salvador, que al extraerlas de pregones de los vendedores ambulantes, comerciantes informales o dichos populares cobran una dimensión poética, una suerte de “poesía popular”, cargada principalmente de humor negro, pero también de connotaciones sentimentales, sexuales, políticas y de género.

A photograph of an exterior wall with "Dulcita Y Madurita" superimposed on it.
SWEET AND MATURE © Abigail Reyes
A photograph of the outside of a red building with "QUEDÉ CURADA" superimposed on a wall.
I WAS CURED © Abigail Reyes
A photograph of a bare wall with "UNA NUNCA SABE" superimposed on it.
YOU NEVER KNOW © Abigail Reyes
A photograph of an exterior wall with "YO NO SOY TU JUGUETE" superimposed on it.
I AM NOT YOUR PLAYTHING © Abigail Reyes

House Party #19

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