Citrus Skin Weighing on a Pear or Tear Shape (drain the swamp or it will drain you)

Materials: Cast palm trunk husks, braided palm fronds, air plants, floor resin, wall insulation foam, interior latex house paint, plastic funerary plants, dessicated tropical plants

The gestating figure is inspired by Caribbean tales about pregnancy, which claim that citrus cravings and nausea indicate the gender of a fetus. The work considers the culture of pregnancy in the Americas, a complicated historical, political, and geographic context wherein conquering the tropical landscape and women’s bodies stem from a colonial Eurocentric legacy. Back view of palm fronds, air plants, plastic, resin, and foam also refers to a Victor Berger (a founding member of the Social Democratic Party of America) quote from 1912 that “We should have to drain the swamp...if we want to get rid of those mosquitos.” The phrase was popularized in 1919 by Musollini’s fascist party to ‘root out corruption.'

The work's title draws from "Mother Poem" a book and poem written by Caribbean poet Edward Kamau Brathwaite.
"Flowered / dead river courses: dry causes / the leaves of the land eaten by tourists / my mother's vision blocked by bricks and cement blacks / leak of cool from the grass / from the glass of thirst / in her throat / and her children."