“One of the tactics of domestication of nature is rationalization”...”Geometrization converts matter into a gridded surface, measurable for the optimization of its use, whether of natural resources or human labor forces"
Beatriz González-Stephan
Beatriz González-Stephan
After moving to the U.S., my childhood home burned down. This was both a tangible and symbolic experience that erased most of my physical memories in my home country, Venezuela. This have me a heightened sense of nostalgia, and I inevitably started seeing the landscape of the Midwest in comparison to the one in Caracas; finding allegories, similarities and differences.
Controlled fires, or prescribed burns, are practices that remove unwanted species that threaten native ones within an ecosystem. In this work I see the landscape as an allegory to explore how ornamental, invasive, fruit, and endemic species can become symbols of this social transition. Using a reinterpretation of Venezuelan flora, I hope to encourage the viewer to understand that the manufactured landscape I have recreated is as artificial as the colonial hierarchies that can be unnoticeably perpetuated.
Controlled fires, or prescribed burns, are practices that remove unwanted species that threaten native ones within an ecosystem. In this work I see the landscape as an allegory to explore how ornamental, invasive, fruit, and endemic species can become symbols of this social transition. Using a reinterpretation of Venezuelan flora, I hope to encourage the viewer to understand that the manufactured landscape I have recreated is as artificial as the colonial hierarchies that can be unnoticeably perpetuated.
