Photo: courtesy of the artist
In her work, Dominican-American multidisciplinary artist Joiri Minaya examines complexities around the Caribbean region’s dark history of colonialism and enslavement, and how these histories continue through different facets of tourism. She examines tropical stereotypes and exotification, which are tied to tourism, and the construction of “paradise.” In her series Containers (2015 –20), she documents herself wearing tropical-pattern bodysuits that fully cover her body, leaving just her eyes uncovered; she gazes directly at spectators, reclaiming her agency. Based on research that Minaya conducted exploring the exotification of women in the Caribbean in previous work, she expands upon how tourism and other forms of colonial practices in the Caribbean exotify and create a one-dimensional image of the Tropics.
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