Creatures Without Memory, by Alejandro A. Canela

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, illustrated, from Bottlecap Features.

Creatures Without Memory is an experiment on emotions, a lesson to learn about the dark part of our psyche that has the purpose to be, in the end, a positive, hopeful outcome. It is within narrow walls where we learn to appreciate the outside, the mundane, the simple act of being.

A chapbook written and illustrated from a neurodiverse perspective comes to talk about the depression, anxiety and overthinking of the day to day in order to spark a conversation about mental health, without addressing directly the subject but its insides. It is the point of view of the unspoken, the uncomfortable, the constant poking of emotions we actively avoid without knowing the importance of listening to them, those key pieces that create clarity and paths to a deeper self-analysis.

The visual imagery accompanying every poem in these pages is not a representation or ornament of the words, but an extension of them; they don’t exist as separate parts but as one piece shaped by two disciplines who seek each other in order to create a bigger spectrum on a situation or emotion.

Choosing to go through this work is choosing to explore your mental state, and act upon it.

Alejandro Aguilar Canela is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist based in Baltimore, Maryland who specializes in drawing. He has a BA in Information Design, an MFA in Illustration Practice, and has been exhibiting his work internationally including countries like Germany, Brussels, Canada, Mexico and the US where he took part in the 2018 Miami Art Basel. The awards he holds include a Silver Young Cannes Lion and in 2019 he was one of the Best Young Artists according to Domestika Mx. Currently he keeps exploring the rawness of working with lead and emotions while living a family life.