The Locke Breaux Oak of Taft, Louisiana (1657-1968), 2019
Laboratory glassware, air samples collected along River Road, found objects, on found wood
45” x 64” x 5”
In memory of the Locke Breaux Oak of Taft, Louisiana; the founding member and the first president of the Live Oak Society, who as a result of toxic industrialization, fell ill and died due to air and water pollution. More importantly, in memory of and in dedication to the resilient communities of color along Louisianas’ River Road, whom in the past continually endured hate, violence, and historical injustices as a result of the legacy of white supremacy. They presently, share a lineage tainted by generational trauma; yet even so, continue to resist the deliberate environmental racism and ongoing systematic genocide along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Mapped sites rooted in trauma include:
-The Locke Breaux Oak of Taft, Louisiana (Pierre Sauves’ Providence Plantation).
-Louisiana River Road Plantations: Destrehan, Ormond, San Francisco, Evergreen, Whitney, Laura, St. Joseph, Oak Alley, Poche, Houmas, Nottoway, and Magnolia.
-Camp Parapet: “Contraband Camp” (Unions 1st Louisiana Native Guard Regiment- the first all black regiment to fight in the union army during the American Civil War).
-Louisiana River Road Cemeteries: Chalmette National Cemetery, Our Lady of Prompt Succor Cemetery, Waggaman Cemetery, Holy Rosary Cemetery, Green Hill Cemetery, Montz Cemetery, Bishop Cemetery, Saint James Cemetery, Celestin Cemetery, Orange Grove Cemetery, Burnside Cemetery, Jerusalem Cemetery, Saint Gabriel Cemetery, Mount Carmel Cemetery, Rock Zion Cemetery, Mount Olive Cemetery, Sweet Olive Cemetery, Devall Cemetery, Southern Memorial Gardens, Nickwack Cemetery.
-100 plus Industry locations along Cancer Alley.
Terracotta breeze, 2019
Acrylic, handmade paper sourced from recycled materials on canvas
17” x 13”
dowSING and sCRYing, 2019 (Foreground)
Wood dowels, latex house paint, hemp cord,“silkine” thread, music sheets, mirrors, found fishing sinkers, found bullet shell casings, found metal, repurposed plastic packaging, repurposed topo chico bottle caps, found Coca Cola plastic labels and bottle caps collected from the streets and cemeteries of Chiapas (San Cristobal de las Casas, San Juan Chamula, San Lorenzo Zinacantan) and Mexico City, Mexico
Dimensions vary
Indigeneity as Commodity, 2019 (Background)
Acrylic, latex house paint, screen printing ink, on canvas
60” x 96.5”
Since 1895, Compañía Topo Chico has sourced and bottled mineral water from the base of a mountain, Cerro del Topo Chico (Spanish for Little Mole Hill), in northern Monterrey, Mexico. Topo Chico, the beverage whose origins are rooted in a legend centered on an Aztec princess, who suffered from an undiagnosable disease until she “took the healing waters”.
In the 1920s, the first bottle of Coca Cola was bottled at a Top Chico facility. By the 1960s, Coca Cola was conducting billboard marketing campaigns, which read in indigenous languages and showcased people in the traditional dress of the native peoples from Chiapas, Mexico. In 2017, Coca Cola purchased Topo Chico. This acquisition, has allowed them the rights to continue using and developing iconography and a fabricated myth of an Aztec princess, therefore furthering a history of capitalizing on representations of indigenous women to market their product.
In San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, the food and beverage behemoth Femsa, one of the most powerful companies in Mexico, owns and operates a Coca Cola bottling plant. This Coca-Cola plant and the government (Vicente Fox, 2000-2006 president of Mexico, was a former chief executive of Coca-Cola) supported practices of the water it diverts and the product it sells, has been and to this day, continues to be a site of protest and resistance.
Coca Cola is not only one of the worst plastic polluters in the world but it is also responsible for the dual crises of the diabetes epidemic and the chronic shortage of potable water in Chiapas, Mexico. In these areas where potable water is scarce, some neighborhoods have running water just a few times a week and households are forced to purchase water from tanker trucks or instead, drink Coca Cola which is more accessible and just as affordable as water. It is no surprise that in a place where water shortages and contamination are becoming worse with climate change, the effect Coca Cola is causing on public health and basic human rights is evident.
In the nearby town of San Juan Chamula, Coca Cola has since been integrated into local culture and religion. Inside the 16th-century church, where saints are adorned with mirrors (to keep the spirits at bay) and amidst displays of pine needles, copal incense, and candles, Coca Cola bottles are plentiful. These bottles, and their liquid content, have largely replaced the original corn liquor that was once central to ceremonial traditions, and Coca Cola is now consumed with the belief that the carbonated beverage has the power to expel evil and heal the sick.
Scarcity, 2017
Acrylic, latex house paint, charcoal, oil pastel, upholstery nails, thread, wire, pink Himalayan salt, on wood
24” x 48” x 2.5”
Manifesting Power, 2017
Cedar bark, found electrical porcelain insulator, on wood
42" x 6" x 5"
Manifesting Power is in homage to the sacred and spiritual act of traditionally harvesting cedar, that has been culturally passed along from one generation to the next, among The Haida.
Native to Mexico, 2017
Mixed media
18" x 50" x 5"
Native to Mexico is inspired by Pythagoras and the geometrical representation of Plato's (lower) branch of the tree of triples.
True North, 2017
Acrylic, latex house paint, found wood column base, found saw blade, found nails, steel wire, wood stain on wood panel
96” x 18” x 4”
The Passage of Time, 2014
Metal, steel wire, oil pastel, wood stain on wood panel in artists frame
61” x 18” x 3”
The Passage of Time is a present-day interpretation and reproduction of a diagram dating the past. It is a sourced visual recording of the year-by-year studies on a series of generational trees and a scientific reading of place and time through the examination of their ring growth patterns.