Jessica Kairé

Jessica Kairé’s Such Is Life in the Tropics transforms the most emblematic symbol of tropical abundance—the banana—into improvised weapons that are as humorous as they are unsettling. In the works Ninja Star and Nunchunks (both 2012), papier-mâché bananas are painted with affectionate precision, their bright yellow surfaces stretching, folding, or coupling to mimic the forms of self-defense objects. The formal joke is immediate: the softest, most perishable fruit becomes an instrument of protection, its absurdity laid bare through both the material and the gesture. Yet, beneath the comedic façade lies a sobering recognition of the precarity that shapes everyday life in Guatemala and other post-imperial contexts across the tropics.

These sculptures were born from a broader project involving workshops, videos, and performances, in which Kairé guides viewers through the process of crafting homemade weapons from tropical produce—objects that, in their original form, are meant to nourish rather than defend. The banana becomes a conceptual hinge: cheap, ubiquitous, and deeply tied to the geopolitical history of Central America, it anchors the artist’s commentary on how violence, colonial legacies, and insecurity contour domestic existence. The translation of a performance into sculpture—Such Is Life in the Tropics Nunchunks into its sculptural counterpart, Ninja Star—extends this commentary into the gallery space, where the fruit’s material fragility contrasts sharply with the very notion of weaponry. Kairé’s humor amplifies the absurdity of the situation, emphasizing that in environments where the state cannot provide safety, resourcefulness becomes a survival tactic.

At the same time, Such Is Life in the Tropics reflects the artist’s interest in transforming violence into spaces of conviviality and shared experience. The final step in Kairé’s workshops—eating the weapon—folds the object back into its original purpose, turning the act of self-defense into one of nourishment and even emotional release. Her anecdote about confronting an intruder with banana nunchucks underscores the piece’s playful yet pointed critique: creativity becomes both a coping mechanism and a form of resistance. By embedding the banana within this oscillation between threat and humor, Kairé invites viewers to consider how tropical identities are shaped not only by the fruit’s long colonial history but also by the inventive, often absurd strategies that people devise in order to survive it.