Cornucopia
2016
Ink on Tyvek
108" x 225"
Cornucopia is inspired in Spanish Colonial Mopa Mopa — a process using a natural resin that is still indigenous to Colombia and which in colonial times mimicked Chinese lacquer. It would be heated, stretched, painted and adhered to wooden objects (similar to collage). Indigenous Colombian cultural traditions were turned into goods, stripped of their valuable components (gold, silver, etc.) and traded with Europe and China. I create contemporary collage that references the original process and expresses its visual representation of Spanish colonization and the resulting hybridization. This piece revisits the patterns of memory and the trauma of colonization in both our past and contemporary world.