Multichannel Video Installation
Digital / Color / Stereo / 8 min loop
Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University, 2017
Audiovisual Jungle: Latino Bodies & Export Fruit, Installation view. Photo © Paul Litherland / Studio Lux © Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University
The piece explores self-representation and racial fetishization in dating apps. Selfie videos of young South Americans blend with screen captures of Google Earth and found footage of advertising of Chilean fruit for export. The audiovisual environment aims to expose the double standard subjected upon Latin American bodies: visible when objectified as being sexually available; invisible when undertaking cheap labour necessary to the maintenance of a neoliberal economy. Mobile technology works as a frame wherein images of racial, gender, and sexual stereotypes are paired with those of the global circulation of goods. The montage juxtaposes the images with electronic beats, latino dance music and telecom sounds.
The installation integrates a large projection and 8 LCD screens spread throughout the floor of the gallery. It was produced for the show “Ignition 13”, at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal, Canada in April of 2017.
Audiovisual Jungle: Latino Bodies & Export Fruit, Installation view. Photo © Paul Litherland / Studio Lux © Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University