A giant pile of bananas—can you dig it? - Cuenca - Brief Article

A giant pile of bananas--as many as forty thousand of them in some locations--sits in the middle of a public space, totally free for the taking. The installation blends the languages of protest installation, and spectacle, and in it, a strange moment of community takes shape, then eventually scatters. ft is an op en appeal to the senses of taste, smell, touch, and sight--and perhaps to the sense of the absurd.

The work presents a quiet critique of globalization and consumption as it quickly vanishes, bunch by bunch, usually within an hour or two. With references to the Holocaust and the Incas international agribusiness and banking, the fragility of the environment, and of economies overly dependent on natural resources, it examines the murky crossroads of personal and institutional desires, and the implications of consumption in a world of imperialist legacies and unchecked corporate influence. But more than anything, it projects a strangely compelling visual presence as it gradually disappears-an enormous mound of green and golden fruit is whittled away by the audience acting like a curious collective sculptor.

The basic concept of supply and demand was reflected by the locations of this installation. In Costa Rica and Ecuador, the world's leading exporters of bananas, was able to afford large quantities of fruit for the project--about 25,000 in Cuenca and 40,000 in for the project -about 25,000 in both San Jose and Guayaquil. In Poland, however, bananas are imported and are much more expensive having been a luxury item before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 The bananas used for this project were Latin America and were of excellent quality--referred to as "dollar bananas" in the produce industry, Even with funding, from the festival, I could afford only a small amount, I had to compensate by building an armature made out of sand to create the illusion of a giant pile.

This project has been staged, so far, at the Central Bank of Ecuador in Cuenca in August 1999; the Madeleine Hollaender Gallery in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in May 2000; the National Gallery in San Jose, Costa Rica, in November 2000; and in the festival, "International Interactions Ill." in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, in May 2001.

Doug Fishbone is a sculptor and installation artist from New York. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in fine art at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

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