Pursuit of Gold
2016
Wood, personal photographs (open-pit Amazonian goldmine, gold bars, Tate Britain, Tate & Lyle factories; store-bought refined sugar), El Dorado rum, Certification of Completion from the El Dorado rum distillery in Guyana, Tate & Lyle Demerara sugar from Guyana, Lyle's golden syrup, audio recordings of my mother talking about life on a sugar plantation, Tate & Lyle promo videos on corn syrup and ethanol production, Tate & Lyle dextrose, and books ("The Discovery of the Large, Rich, Beautiful Empire of Guiana" and "Maize for the Gods: Unearthing the 9,000-Year History of Corn"
7’ x 10’ 9” x 8
Pursuit of Gold connects my ancestors and me to the transnational and agricultural corporation, Tate and Lyle, as a means to convey a genealogical tree in the globalist era. The work follows the many paths taken by the sugar my Guyanese family harvested, touching upon the present and colonial search for riches (or “El Dorado”). Using a wooden structure representative of my father’s vocation as a carpenter, the two-by-fours become lines that illustrate the conceptual connections between photographs (printed on sugarcane paper) and store-bought goods, such as refined sugar and distilled rum. At the heart of the structure is an audio recording of my mother talking about her life on a Guyanese sugar plantation. By highlighting the interconnectivity of each element, I’m able to show the pervasiveness of colonial and capitalistic reach—where no facet is left untouched.
