Artist Statement
From the Garden of Eden to the Tropical Paradise:

A transubstantiation and the transgression of
symbols of the Tropical landscape.

Throughout the history of mankind different cultures, in their pursuit of the ideal, have invested symbolic meaning into objects and elements of their environment.  In the process of exteriorizing inner quests, these objects have become sensuous representations1, i.e. symbols that express intangible truths or states.  A symbol corresponds to a precise time in history and it transcends history to become universal in its function as an image.  Universality of the symbolic image enables the transformation and adaptation of the symbol by different cultures, but this process also carries numerous misconceptions, misappropriations and colonial fantasies.

The idea of the Tropical Paradise is well rooted within the development of the ancient historical myth of the Garden of Paradise, in fact it is its present day transmutation.  The concept of Paradise as a garden is one of Man’s oldest ideas found in most eastern cultures: a secure, everlasting place in which Man can transcend his frail human condition.  In biblical terms the notion of Paradise became associated with the Garden of Eden. Its earthly representation became a walled garden with dominant water features and planted with date palm trees.  In western societies, this idyllic garden idea was often associated with the Latin term Locus Amoenus a pleasant place which in time became a poetic convention for a description of an idyllic setting where a romantic encounter could occur or where belies an impending threat.

The transformation of the eastern idea of the Garden of Paradise into the western version of Eden as Paradise combined with the notion of the Locus Amoenus became the seeds for the creation of the new Tropical Paradise: an exotic, idyllic place with palm trees by the sea.  Unlike its theological version, this Paradise is within easy reach, ready to be appropriated, consumed exploited and spoiled.  In present times, commercial media and the advertisement industry have successfully reconfigured some of the Paradise images, within different contexts, transforming their traditional meanings, adapting them and making them trans cultural, with far more reaching and readily consumable results.

In my collective unconscious, I carry images inherent to the geographic and cultural milieu of the Tropics. I appropriate and transfigure some of these images in order to transgress their current symbolic meaning in a sensuous play of conflicting alliances. 

Recent work deals with the deconstruction and recombination of images in order to demystify its meaning.  The images lure and repel while playing with the idea of the pineapple as the easily attainable commercial fruit of the Tropical Paradise.  This idea is extended metaphorically in regard to having the viewer question his expectations of a Tropical Paradise in itself: at what cost, to his own reality or to that of the place to stand for his fantasy.

In all the body of work, every piece has been re-thought and re-used in ways that alter their original purpose. The combined use of a variety of artworks presented simultaneously is of importance as a way of creating an indexical visual experience that raises more questions than provides answers in constructing new realities or new fantasies.