María José Argenzio

In Still Living I, María José Argenzio presents a process art sculpture. It comprises three bunches of bananas that have been completely covered with jute rope, creating a strange object in which the texture of the natural fiber contrasts sharply with the forms it produces. The attractive yellow color of the bananas fades in the sculpture. The fruit is identified by the suggested shape of its wrapping and by the strong smell produced as time passes and the bananas decompose. Combining an interest in the flora’s history of her native Ecuador—the world’s largest producer of bananas—with her interest in art history, Argenzio creates a contemporary still life, evoking the baroque tradition in which representing decaying fruit played the role of memento mori, a reminder of our fleeting existence.