Coconut Republic

JD Reforma

Opening 05.04.17 6-8pm
Artist Talks 27.04.17 6-7pm

The term ‘banana republic’ originates in political science, describing politically unstable countries whose economies are largely dependent on the export of a single resource, such as bananas. It arose in the 1870s when bananas were introduced to the United States as a cheap and nutritional food source, and North American companies subsequently began manipulating national land use laws in Central and South America to acquire vast areas of land for agriculture while employing dispossessed native peoples as low-wage workers. Though this practice originated in Latin America it has also been broadly adapted to characterise nations with corrupt governance whose economies are vulnerable to exploitation by foreign corporate interests.

Coconut Republic is a series of new works that explore how American corporate ideology has colonised our modern field of vision. A cast of iconic international brands and emblems are deployed as ambassadors of a seemingly counterfeit reality in which ‘America’ is the single most valuable and volatile export of our time.