Pica / Itch
TEA, Tenerife, Spain. 2022
Part of Colapso exhibition curated by Paula Ramos & Yosi Negrin
Picon Negro (Lava stones) and fresh bananas
12m x 6m x 4m

 

Gradient painting work by a fellow artist in the exhibition.

A lava mound partially buries a large pile of green bananas, spilling over into the adjacent room in the museum. The memory of two gestures of covering and burying found in the Canary Islands are the departing sites for the work. One burial is taken from the local practice of ‘Pica’ in which at times vast amounts of bananas get thrown and buried by centralised market logistics, in order to maintain a high price point and avoid product market saturation. And two, the 2020 volcanic eruption of La Palma island that painfully buried vast amounts of land, housing and banana plantations. The artist juxtaposes the two materials into a new burial and imagines the volcanic eruption as a kind of alarm and earthly re-sensitizing revenge. The word pica translates to itch, an uncomfortable skin sensation.

*The bananas used in the museum are sourced locally and have a life cycle from green to yellow once matured they are taken by a farmer to feed his animals.