Patricia Encarnación

De verde a ma’duro is part of a larger photographic series entitled “El negro detrás de la oreja ” (The Black behind the Ear) in which Dominican artist Patricia Encarnación questions the racist legacy of her native country. De verde a ma’duro comprises two photographs presenting the tension between a hammer and a white ceramic banana with blue patterns reminiscent of European ceramics. In the first image, the two objects appear side by side against bright monochromatic backgrounds of green and yellow. In the second photograph, the hammer is just about to destroy the delicate porcelain banana. The title of the series is inspired by a Dominican saying coined by poet and activist Juan Antonio Alix in 1883. The phrase refers to the Afro presence and heritage of all Dominicans, regardless of the color of their skin. In this work, the banana symbolizes Afro-Dominican history, now covered by a European and colonial pattern about to be destroyed.