Tamalli
Corn is ubiquitous in American culture, from the high fructose corn syrup that fills most sugary, sweet sodas to ethanol, which fuels a certain percentage of cars in the United States. But the ever-present, sweet, yellow grain is also symbolic of many of the issues perpetuated by the U.S.: mono-crop and industrial agriculture, for one, as the native varieties of the grain now only exist in Mexico, my home country. Corn represents the rift between my original and adopted home and the perspectives on land, indigenous knowledge, climate change, and consumerism.
Working with corn was an obvious choice. The influx of American industry into Mexico threatened local varieties of corn. Yet, it has become fashionable in the U.S. to eat blue corn chips and tortillas, despite the fact that U.S. land policy meant those varieties have long been wiped out in this country.
I thought of the Coca-Cola-branded monoblock chairs that seemed ubiquitous with street food in Mexico. I found myself in one of the most intense research processes that got me thinking about food politics in my home country. This research resulted in my experimenting with corn and meat production byproducts to make a stool that would replace the monoblock chairs and sponsor heirloom corn production.