Erika Nj Allen

Banana Leaves Mural is part of the project This Is Not a Coup by Guatemalan-born artist Erika NJ Allen about the coup d’état against Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala carried out with the involvement of the United Fruit Company and the CIA. In this mural, large banana leaves are outlined on a large black wall. Among them, elongated yellow ceramic shapes seem to crawl and wriggle through the leaves like worms. On closer inspection, it is clear that they are large bananas deformed into long, sinuous figures. The idea of the mural refers to the secrecy surrounding the coup d’état and is also an allusion to the border walls erected to prevent the flow of migrants from Central America to the United States. The banana-worms summarize the attempts of the local population to cross the wall and the contemptuous gaze of the United States on the bodies of these migrants.