Premium Fruit

Premium Fruit embodies an ongoing journey of self-exploration and identity discovery. In it, I piece together fragments of my personal history, engaging with the many influences that have shaped me, some of which I’ve only realized in hindsight. The artwork weaves these influences together like a spider’s web, creating a tapestry of connections that are intricate and deeply rooted.

As the piece unfolds, it becomes a self-portrait, intertwining various techniques and mediums I’ve cultivated over my career—such as pattern design, drawing, and collage. It also, perhaps unintentionally, confronts me with the heavy historical biases that have influenced my identity as a Latin American woman. I see how my identity has been fragmented and defined by what we call the ‘European Exotic Gaze’—a perspective rooted in colonialism that has imposed limiting categories on me.

The evolution of my self-portrait is a commentary on this conditioning. My ‘third eye,’ a symbol of wisdom and perception, is trivialized, reduced to a mere label like those placed on exotic fruits. The personal becomes public, revealing hidden truths. I transition from subject to object, represented as a still life, my image laden with the stereotypes of an exoticized and culturally defined identity.

The naturalized image of the Latin woman as an exotic object comparable to tropical fruit. Pineapple / Banana / Mango / Breva / Lulo : Hot Woman / Sweet Woman / Juicy Woman / Voluptuous Woman / Available Woman.