On the floor lay dominos, made from sugar and placed on top of a bed of dirt. I played the game

of dominos in succession to form looping rows that would never happen in the traditional game I grew up with. The white sugar is pressed together and compacted into the formation of dominos contrasting the deep brown, loose dirt. The arrangement of pieces on the earth mimics the linear irrigation rows on agricultural fields. Vertical rows stretch across the base and create a dizzying visual effect as your eyes move across the plinth, bouncing between the eight rows. The domino pieces repeat, at times played multiple times per row, per ‘game’, to form a sort of infinite loop where the game never ceases.

Through the manipulation of game rules and repeating of pieces, in this work I am considering land and resource extraction, privatization, and deregulation in regard to past and continuing neoliberal crusades led by the U.S. powers to accumulate wealth at the expense of others. In this, I am specifically thinking of the relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Illustrating this repetitive cycle of conquest and exploitation of land, workers, and resources by foreign powers that feel an entitlement to such things. This work examines this use of things like pawns at their disposal, replaceable pieces in a never ending game for concentrated money and power. 

Using sugar on dirt, I am still considering abjection as the highly processed product is placed back onto dirt though it will not grow. A confection that will no longer be eaten and can only crumble back into the earth.

A domino effect.