I Pray, Then I Play in the Collective Landscape

Originally, I Pray, Then I Play in the Collective Landscape I was a single component in a much larger installation realized while the artist was in residence at the ArtPace Foundation for Contemporary Art in San Antonio. Created during a period of intense self-reflection on the part of the artist, I Pray revolves largely around the theme of personal transformation. I Pray is divided into two or, if the door to the cabinet is open, three different segments, its very form calling to mind a religious altarpiece or, alternately, a minimalist sculpture. Inside the cabinet is a latex suit made to the artist's exact measurements. Its flesh color, as well as its dimensions, suggests a skin shed by the artist himself. A variety of soaps purchased from a local botanica (or Mexican pharmacy) lie nestled at the bottom of the cabinet. Each soap was designed to "cure" a specific affliction, whether physical or psychological. More generally, however, the soaps evoke cleansing and regeneration, purification and resurrection. The mirror, long a symbol for heightened self-awareness, serves to facilitate the participation of the viewer, which the artist has described as essential to the completion of the work. While I Pray is born of the artist's experience as a Mexican-American living in South Texas, it can by no means be reduced to just that. Indeed, Amado's approach to cultural identity is nuanced rather than didactic, poetic rather than political.