CURRENT WORK
‘Money Dance’ 2021
Mixed media with collage ( US Dollars and Salvadoran colon)
159 cm x 208 cm![]()
“Money Dance” comes from a typical dance at Salvadoran weddings where the guests queue up to pin money on the bride and groom in exchange for an intimate dance. This practice is particular to communities that have immigrated to the US illegally in an effort to support the party hosts financially.
Here social, monetary and political currency converge.
Dollars,Colons and Bit Coin all jostle against the vibrant costume of the dancer in the painting. The range of currency charts the trajectory of El Salvador’s socioeconomic past, present and future. Evidence of policies and practices that have constructed the Salvadoran identity and contributed to a violently constructed image authored by the white gaze.
As El Salvador navigates the 21st Century the country continues to grapple with the cultural and economic power of money. On the 7th September 2021 El Salvador will become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
As if overtaken by a parasitic rash frantic bitcoin gold dots leak from the confines of the figures and attack like a plague.
Mixed media with collage ( US Dollars and Salvadoran colon)
159 cm x 208 cm
“Money Dance” comes from a typical dance at Salvadoran weddings where the guests queue up to pin money on the bride and groom in exchange for an intimate dance. This practice is particular to communities that have immigrated to the US illegally in an effort to support the party hosts financially.
Here social, monetary and political currency converge.
Dollars,Colons and Bit Coin all jostle against the vibrant costume of the dancer in the painting. The range of currency charts the trajectory of El Salvador’s socioeconomic past, present and future. Evidence of policies and practices that have constructed the Salvadoran identity and contributed to a violently constructed image authored by the white gaze.
As El Salvador navigates the 21st Century the country continues to grapple with the cultural and economic power of money. On the 7th September 2021 El Salvador will become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
As if overtaken by a parasitic rash frantic bitcoin gold dots leak from the confines of the figures and attack like a plague.
‘Loras’ 2021
oil on canvas with carbon drawings
150 cm x 100 cm
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oil on canvas with carbon drawings
150 cm x 100 cm
‘Lenca Pots’ 2021
spray paint and acrylic on canvas
122 cm x 152 cm each![]()
spray paint and acrylic on canvas
122 cm x 152 cm each
‘Chambelan’ 2021
oil on canvas
100 cm x 150 cm![]()
oil on canvas
100 cm x 150 cm
‘Vessels of Magic’ 2021
Paper vessels with spray paint and cochineal
60 cm x 40 cm
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Task 1: Choose a pot. I made these pots inspired by the Lenca people from El Salvador, a lost civilization, language and visual culture from my home country.
Task 2: Break apart and destroy the pot. Completely remove its form and visual language.Task 3: Create something from the remains and place it in front of the projection, which shows layered clips of my studio, a student making work and my family in El Salvador making chocolate. All forms of making that are connected through me. These experiences are ‘intra-acting’ within me nourishing my pedagogical practice. Layers of practice and making overlap and sprout new forms of knowledge that may take immeasurable lengths of time to reflect on.
Processes are where we learn
In my performance installation ‘Doing and Undoing’ ( 2019 ) at Goldsmiths University I presented a collection of Papier Mache pots I created in my studio over six months. The forms were inspired by the pottery of the Lenca civilization. The materials were crucial in the work as the paper and the construction of the forms rendered them useless as objects. I asked the audience to destroy the work by crushing the pots and using the remains to create their own objects, subsequently ridding of the Lenca reference. I wanted to make the point that it is not in the final outcome that we learn but in the process. The act of destroying the pots was an act of collective undoing in which the materials informed learning. The outcome became unimportant and the not knowing became pedagogical. I wanted to send the message of things never ending, learning never ending.
Paper vessels with spray paint and cochineal
60 cm x 40 cm
Task 1: Choose a pot. I made these pots inspired by the Lenca people from El Salvador, a lost civilization, language and visual culture from my home country.
Task 2: Break apart and destroy the pot. Completely remove its form and visual language.Task 3: Create something from the remains and place it in front of the projection, which shows layered clips of my studio, a student making work and my family in El Salvador making chocolate. All forms of making that are connected through me. These experiences are ‘intra-acting’ within me nourishing my pedagogical practice. Layers of practice and making overlap and sprout new forms of knowledge that may take immeasurable lengths of time to reflect on.
Processes are where we learn
In my performance installation ‘Doing and Undoing’ ( 2019 ) at Goldsmiths University I presented a collection of Papier Mache pots I created in my studio over six months. The forms were inspired by the pottery of the Lenca civilization. The materials were crucial in the work as the paper and the construction of the forms rendered them useless as objects. I asked the audience to destroy the work by crushing the pots and using the remains to create their own objects, subsequently ridding of the Lenca reference. I wanted to make the point that it is not in the final outcome that we learn but in the process. The act of destroying the pots was an act of collective undoing in which the materials informed learning. The outcome became unimportant and the not knowing became pedagogical. I wanted to send the message of things never ending, learning never ending.