When at Virreina, an art residency in rural Colombia, I made an igleñata, a church-turned-piñata, based on a girl growing up in San Gil. Seeing bright neons contrasted with neutral earth tones, seeing the bright pink markings of development andbusiness signage, I began to notice how people construct identities through adopted aesthetics. At parties and bars, I took note of which objects were present: soft plastics as curtains or hard disc plastics for game pieces.
At stores, I discovered how certain global style trends are engulfed and others are dismissed. San Gil is an industry town made up of ranchero-conservativism, dirt-biker camaraderie, and fairytale femininity, all visible through popular characters like LOL Dolls, Homer Simpson, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
I used magazines from town, wood from the farm, produce bags from the fruit market, and toys from the local toy stores to mirror a reality, much like how Celant speaks of his own work, “an art that does not add ideas or things to the world, but that discovers what’s already there.”
I found an undercurrent present in that Colombian locality and created a rural party series. The series included
Michelada, a michelada chalice that I painted pink cheetah print and served filled with Colombian beer and spices. I investigated the power of objects to rewrite the social scripts of a space.
Party mat, a woven mat made of polka dot pajama fabric, fruit exporter bags, and trashbags transforms the kitchen from a mundane site into a place of celebration, honing into a mother’s instinct to take out her nicest glassware for a celebration.
madre monte 2024
` fique and fabric
Index, 2024
wood, spray paint, polyplastic, children’s toys, fabric, tinsel
Club Colombia, 2024wood, plastic, rubber, button
Payaso, 2024
candy wrapper, ribbon, fabric, thread
Diva, 2024wood, button, latex, spray paint, foam
Michelada, 2024
chalice, acrylic paint, lime, water, and salt
Aguila and Party Mat, 2024thread, polyplastic, fabric, trashbags, steel eagle
Igleñata, 2024rain jacket, concrete, rubber, collage on wood