Fort Lauderdale-based artist and performer Anthony Torres is no stranger to exploring deep and complex themes in his life, such as his cultural identity, self-discovery, and mental health struggles through theater and poetry.
But, for the first time, he’s taken on a new creative endeavor that challenged him to dive deeper into those themes in his first solo art exhibition, “An Island in the Shape of a Prison” at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, which runs through Saturday, Oct. 19.
Torres, a new grant administrator for the Broward County Cultural Division, previously applied for one of the division’s artist grants to create a performance art piece.
He says he applied for the Artist Innovation Grant two years ago for a beachside poetry performance presented with an opera singer, a percussionist, and another poet.
He points out that this was prior to him starting his position at the Broward County Cultural Division. He says that the grant was such an “awesome experience,” he decided to apply for another grant, the Artist Support Grant, that can fund up to $5,000 for a project.
“I looked at it as an opportunity to fund my first attempt at visual art,” says Torres.
“An Island” showcases artwork using mixed media, photographs, video, and a poem written by Torres, which is broken up into sections throughout the exhibit. Themes are reflections of his serving as a soldier at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq while also tackling the idea of self-exploration, in addition to insights into his Puerto Rican heritage that he has explored in other art mediums.
“I write a lot of poetry, and I’m in a theater company called the Combat Hippies, which is an ensemble of Puerto Rican military veteran performing artists. So, I feel like I’ve been kind of using those mediums to tell different stories, including my experience in Iraq in 2004, for some time now,” says Torres.
When it came to creating pieces for his exhibition, a major theme he endeavored to explore was his Puerto Rican heritage and how that is intrinsically connected to his time serving in the military, he explains.
One of the first pieces that viewers see when walking through the gallery space is entitled “Honor et Fidelitas,” which is a combination of mixed media and found objects on a painting. The artwork was made by altering a replication of “The Borinqueneers,” painted by artist Dominic D’Andrea in 1992 for the National Guard Heritage Foundation. The original painting depicts the U.S. 65th Infantry Regiment, who were an all-Puerto Rican military unit, during a bayonet charge against a Chinese division during the Korean War.
Torres chose to include his interpretation of the piece as a nod to the long history of Puerto Rican soldiers serving under U.S. direction, as well as his own military background.
“Puerto Rico has an interesting relationship with the United States, living under the U.S. as one of its colonies and fighting in its wars historically. But also, for me personally, my dad was in the Army National Guard in New York in the 80s. So, as a child, he spoke fondly of those few years he served, which had a major influence on me,” says Torres.
At 19, Torres enlisted in the Army and was sent overseas to Iraq at the height of the war. During his deployment, he served as a therapist at the Abu Ghraib Prison, providing therapy to both Iraqi detainees as well as deployed troops, a contradiction which he struggled with daily, he recalls.
“I found myself in Iraq dealing with some inner turmoil and conflict because I was in this difficult position of helping our troops with their mental health while also helping prisoners who we looked at as the ‘enemy.’”
His job, he says, was about practicing empathy and talking to and getting to know the very people the Army was fighting against.
“That’s why I wanted to experiment with telling the totality of that experience and experiment with doing it visually in this exhibition,” he says.
Unbeknownst to Torres at the time, many military officials and soldiers were at the center of serious abuse, torture, and human rights violations at Abu Ghraib Prison, which Torres addresses in his piece entitled “I Love Me-Ataque De Nervios.”
It is a collage of Torres’ personal effects, awards, and mementoes from his time serving as well as newspaper clippings about the atrocities happening during that time. It serves as a haunting reminder of the stark differences experienced by Torres and others at Abu Ghraib Prison.
It also was during this time working in what he refers to as a “combat stress officer,” however, that Torres was not only tasked with providing therapy to soldiers but also responding to devastating mental health emergencies, including two attempted overdoses and a suicide.
By the time Torres left the military, he says he was suffering from mental distress and was prescribed an “overwhelming” number of medications.
It was with these prescription bottles collected by Torres over the years that create the central piece in the exhibition. He glued his numerous pill bottles, prescribed to him from 2019 to 2024, to a plywood board in the shape of the island of Puerto Rico.
His intention was to represent the mental and emotional impact he experienced while deployed to Iraq but also the impact of colonization on Puerto Rico since becoming a U.S. colony in 1898, he explains.
“It’s often promoted in the military this sense of ‘we’re going to tear you down to build you back up,’ which is necessary in order to do the work that’s required in the military. But what gets torn down is the sense of self-individuality, and because of this, there’s a deep sense of loss for a part of your identity that never returns,” he reveals.
Today, Torres is free from medications and instead hopes to use this piece as well as the others in the exhibition to spark a conversation among people who come to see it about the stark realities surrounding military service.
“Creating this exhibition was a true test in vulnerability and I believe vulnerability is a strength. As a man and also as a veteran, I was trying to put myself out there in a way that I hope inspires other people,” he says.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “An Island in The Shape of a Prison” by Anthony Torres
WHERE: Pompano Beach Cultural Center, 50 Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. Through Saturday, Oct. 19.
COST: Free
INFORMATION: 954.545.7800 or pompanobeacharts.org
This story was produced by Broward Arts Journalism Alliance (BAJA), an independent journalism program of the Broward County Cultural Division. Visit ArtsCalendar.com for more stories about the arts in South Florida.
