Lina Maria Giraldo

site specific installation

July 15- August 30, 2005

Bar-B-Que Reception: Saturday, July 23, 2 - 4 pm

Green Street roof installation by Lina Maria Giraldo

digital prints attached to glass

Giraldo creates environments that remind viewers of the complexities of the "drug war" which devastates the ecology of her home in Colombia. The artist uses the beauty of the poppie flower installed in windows which also harbor menacing crop dusting planes which swoop and fly above them. By placing these images against the sky seen in the background Giraldo crreates a feeling that the planes are above us, at this moment, making these distant political, economic and environmental struggles more visible to people in the U.S. --James Hull, Curator

Artist's Statement:

The growth of poppies in Colombia and their eradication by using aerial fumigation is a very little known issue. Very few people are aware of the scope of heroin consumption and even fewer people know where it comes from. While some light was shed on the matter after the invasion of Afghanistan, the problem has managed continued to grow silently to huge proportions.
Since the “Golden Triangle” in Asia has now been turned into a tourist site and Afghanistan is bussy supplying the European market, the heroin market has blossomed in Colombia. New cartels looking for alternative products and markets found heroin a great profit, while keeping their existing cocaine routes. With this boom also came fumigations and ecological destruction in Colombia’s forests.

I grew the flowers in my Boston Garden from seeds. This process allowed me to have a deeper understanding of the plant and learn from its beauty. It provided the opportunity to take the photos which I used to create it. In this installation there is a new element, a video piece. It is mixing a video collage with real time footage of bystanders. I chose to use video surveillance, because to me it is an icon of the modern “American Society”, where every move is monitored through a TV. It overlaps the project and the spectator, literally bringing him into the piece. It reminds people that they are not isolated from the problem but that in fact it is all around them and touches them.

Ever since I started working artistically with this problem, I wanted to bring it to a public space where it could reach outside the academic and environmentalist circles and touch average people in their everyday life. The last time I had the chance of showing this exhibit, it was in a private school and the public was basically limited to students, staff and visitors. Although I was extremely satisfied with the results, I still felt it was important to work in a public space with a larger and diverse audience. With this exhibit, I am finally being able to do so. By being 24/7 insisde a subway station, I can create the awareness that is urgently needed. I believe this work will help the community fight its biggest enemy: ignorance.

-- Lina Maria Giraldo

detail of Green Street facing window installation

(2005)digital color photographs of the artist's poppies printed on adhesive transparencies