USA Paradisiaca

USA Paradisiaca is a video originally created as part of a performance of the same title. This piece was commissioned by Queens Museum in Flushing, New York for an exhibition curated by Valerie Smith entitled Crossing the Line. The piece was one of a group of site-specific projects that took place outside of the Museum’s facilities and in the community. In USA Paradisiaca I host a comprehensive presentation on the plantain at a restaurant while performing in collaboration with the staff. Guests join regular patrons of a Latine restaurant in Queens to sample what to many of them is “the other” in a dinner consisting of five dishes made out of a subtropical fruit, the plantain. In this piece the plantain and the immigrant are interchangeable subjects of a visual/edible presentation that warns the audience to watch out for the indelible stains that can result from handling this specimen.

To access New York Times review on this video click HERE