Leyenda.
Found objects, fabric, entomology case.
30 x 30 x 2.5 in / 76 x 76 x 6.4 cm.
Made in 2023-2024
Leyenda is a diptych wall piece giving form to the indeterminate boundaries between cultural reclamation and “ownership” contrived by states and sciences alike. It is comprised of wrapped rosaries, statuettes of saints, and other objects of worship, set in entomological boxes.
The title refers to propaganda campaigns, collectively called Leyenda negra and Leyenda rosa. Leyenda negra began in the 16th century by Dutch and English colonists to portray their Spanish rivals as uniquely violent. Spain retorted with their own Leyenda rosa, their rose-tinted take on their purportedly divinely mandated conquest and colonial activities.
Exemplifying multifarious readings of past and present, Leyenda might be interpreted simultaneously as an observation on collective, even internalized hispanophobia as well as—in the other hand—a smoothing of the impacts of proselytization and settlerism in the Americas.
