De Colombia con Amor: Postcards from Colombia (From Colombia with Love), 2016

As summaries of knowledge, the World Book Encyclopedia continues to perpetuate post-colonial
legacies of the superiority of the Western world over the non-Western world. Its narrative attempts to
articulate identity in the face of the inevitable Otherness. After a trip to Colombia in 2016 to research
the legacy of gold during the Spanish Conquest, I produced this installation, using volumes of World
Book Encyclopedias covers, fabric, pages and the edges of the gilded book. The installation included gold
figures, ruffs using book sections, gloves from fabric, and red velvet fabric to accentuate the concept
of the tableau, similar to paintings from the Golden Period in Spain. Cuellos/ Ruffs are made from the
pages manipulated using water and glue. The gold figures not only echo what I remember seeing at the
museum in Bogota but also represent my delight in working with paper and the possibilities the
material offers.
This work