Bananhattan

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, in graphite, lower right: Chiqui Mendoza 10; titled, in graphite, lower center: “Bananhattan”; inscribed, in graphite, lower left: 15/25

Label

Transposing the banana onto “the Big Apple,” Mendoza renders Manhattan Island as a place of belonging and possibility for Dominican migrants. The mapping of transit lines and the airport signal Caribbean mobility and access. The ripened banana, covered with black splotches, references Dominican cuisine; here, at the peak of its sweetness, it is ripe for eating and opportunity.

This print was produced through the inaugural project of the Dominican York Proyecto GRÁFICA (DYPG), a project focused on expressions of dominicanidad and the lived experience of diaspora in New York.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ARTH 48.06, LACS 32, Borderlands Art and Theory, Tatiana Reinoza, Spring 2019

First Year Student Enrichment Program, Israel Reyes, Summer 2021

COCO 26, What's In Your Toolbox?, Moktar Bouba and Tania Convertini, Fall 2021

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Art History 40.05, Latino Studies 12.01, Print the Revolution, Mary Coffey, Spring 2023

Latino Studies 44.01, Anthropology 12.19, Sociology 43.01, Latino Roots & Transitions, Christina Gomez, Summer 2024

Exhibition History

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 12 - July 22, 2022.

Provenance

Coronado Print Studio, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2019.

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