Once an artist has found his or her personal style, their work becomes unmistakable. That is precisely what strikes you most when you stand before an original Kirindongo: not its size, nor its ingeniousness, but the sheer uniqueness of what lies before you.
Born in Curaçao in 1946, Hubert “Yubi” Kirindongo has been shaping matter at will for more than thirty years. Over the course of his career he has worked with practically every conceivable material, from driftwood to plastic bottles, from scrap metal to discarded car tires.
His style is evidently autochthonous, often depicting animals and masks, but it also partakes of a subtle religious feeling, accentuated in his totem-like pieces and in a number of sculptures that evoke a Christian background.
Because, ultimately, Yubi’s work is about energy and regeneration: Kirindongo manages to imprint discarded material (junk, really) with solemnity; he makes beautiful, admirable pieces out of car tires; he turns existing objects into something else and by doing so he gives them a new meaning, a new life.
Published in the 2012 edition of Experience Curacao
MEMO FROM LA–LA LAND 