Sculptor, installation artist, videographer, and photographer Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons says that she aims to forge “historical narratives that illuminate the spirit of people and places, past and present” through her artwork. She is best known for her large-format Polaroids, such as Constellation (2004), a grid of photographs in which the artist’s body is symbolized by abstract, painterly compositions of dreadlocks, which reference her African roots. Campos-Pons’ Sugar / Bittersweet (2010) installation fashions a microcosmic sugar trade in which columns of raw sugar stand in for sugar cane fields, cast glass forms pierced by African spears reference slaves, and roped Chinese weights allude to post-harvest weighing and Chinese indentured laborers in Cuba. Sugar / Bittersweet, while addressing Cuba’s national history, cultural resilience, and cross-cultural identity, parallels Campos-Pons’ personal story, exiled identity living in Boston, and the Afro-Cuban diaspora.