


Jaime Suárez
Further images
Barroglifos of El Yunque is a ceramic intervention paying tribute to archaeology, ancestral memory, and the flow of water in El Yunque's watershed.
The work is inspired by petroglyphs, symbols carved in stone by indigenous peoples. Through the coil-building technique--historically used for vases and consisting of rolling and shaping clay-- Suárez reinterprets the Taíno spiral water symbol, allowing these motifs to emerge as white clay reliefs on pre-existing rocks, integrating harmoniously with the landscape rather than being engraved directly onto stone.
The title Barroglifos, a fusion of the Spanish words barro (clay) and petroglifo (petroglyph) suggests an imagined archaeology that activates the past from the present. Water serves as the throughline: not only as a vital element, but also as an ancestral symbol that unites generations and shared memory. Drawing from archaeological findings of petroglyphs discovered in El Yunque's watershed, such as in the rivers Blanco and Espiritu Santo, the work is conceived as an ephemeral homage to the forest, inviting viewers to connect with its history through the river's course.