That’s Bananas

This series of glass vases uses the Cavendish banana—a fruit re-engineered, grown as a monoculture, and mass-produced for export—to mirror the selective exoticism in our daily lives. While the banana is welcomed into homes and routines, it is stripped of its cultural and historical significance—its backstory of exploitation, environmental degradation, and colonial trade discarded. The colorful vases represent the exoticized “tropical other,” while the vase stripped of color symbolizes what has been erased and made palatable in the process. This echoes broader trade systems where goods, like bananas, cross borders freely, while the cultural roots and the people behind their production face restriction and marginalization.