LLORA LATA LLORA
Can, Music box, Foam, Banana Leaf, Various hardware - 2022
Llora Lata Llora encapsulates a perverse reflection of its former self, a simulacrum of our shared genealogy. Repurposed as a music box, the canned tamales can be operated to emote the 1999 merengue classic “Aqui, Pero Alla” by La Banda Gorda played on banana leaf sheet music. By operating the canned tamales, the end user agrees to listen to the plight of a pre-Columbian culinary staple devolved into a novelty product. Through a complex history of neocolonialist tactics in Latin America, including insurgence, political corruption, and exploitation, this can and I have found ourselves in the periphery of an American reality.