Originally showcased in a group exhibition at The NYU Langone Art Program and Collection, Mas valiosa que el oro y la plata (More valuable than gold and silver) highlights the medicinal properties of the work’s centerpiece: the coca plant. The exhibition, Herbarium, which was curated by Katherine Meehan in 2017, emphasized the role of plants in medicine across history. In this artwork, I use the form of the triptych and the context of the exhibition to draw specific attention to the coca plant. Coca, grown throughout the Andean region, has been venerated by its communities for more than 5,000 years, with a deep appreciation for the plant’s healing, nutritional, and ancestral qualities.
A number of coca’s identities are showcased in this diorama triptych. Employing a mix of digital drawing, clay, gold and silver leafing, as well as found branches, I weave together multiple conceptions of the coca plant. Through references to its place in the tea ritual, in addition to critiques of its exploitation, the identity of the plant is revealed to be infinitely layered, leaving the viewer to unravel its meaning.
While the coca plant is largely known in the West through the alkaloid derived from it (cocaine), the artwork considers the value of the plant, beyond that defined by colonial and capitalist matrices. Thus, the triptych allows space for the audience to appreciate the coca plant—not for its extractive qualities but—for the communities it brings together and the environment from which it comes.
Más valiosa que el oro y la plata, 2017
Tryptic, C-print on rice paper, Dutch gold, tea, tree branch, hand-painted with gold acrylic. Each panel is 11 x 14 inches.