We can say an artist is ahead of the curve when maintaining the organic folklore of her/his roots by integrating it into new cultural and artistic trends. My island, Dominican Republic, has a transgressive, religious and ethnic music history base: from Africans, Aborigines, and Europeans, we have absorbed a worldwide influence that has come to shape the rhythms exercised by new generations and new technologies. When I saw the video “Ninfa de las Aguas,” helmed by Dominican director Fernando “Fundamental” Rivas for the increasingly popular Carolina Camacho, I found myself very inspired. From the first moment I was attracted by the fact it is a low-budget video –simple and homogenous. And yet, despite its resources, the result can be placed on the same list of audiovisual output of artists like Fever Ray and FKA Twigs. Not for the manufacturing of the images themselves, but for the pagan and magical issues that develop.
Undoubtedly Carolina and the crew created a concept that leads us to the sea. A sea of nymphs, goddesses and queens. All in a religious, spiritual and sexual way. The music takes it all, in a confronting way that keeps us afloat in this liquid entertaining sequence. While the clip can be somewhat monotonous (because of its ecstatic location), the pace and the drama in the performance of the artist helps to keep us interested from beginning to end. The strength of the video is that it plays with our imagination, with the concept of beauty and femininity, seeking the aesthetic in non-traditional spiritual beliefs that we don’t see often lately.