Vincent Price Art Museum New Voices Exhibit 2026
4/25/26 - 6/13/26
By interpreting lived realities (drug usage, the drug war, low income criminalization, racist institutions, etc.) under US systems of oppression, this work appropriates dominant symbols and aesthetics that question and destablize. The work turns the premier symbol of US American hegemony on its head by displaying dime bags/ bolsa de toston in a flag arrangement.
The dime bag serves two symbolic purposes: on one hand, it is a literal representation of the people’s coping mechanism from living under an oppressive culture; on the other hand, the plastic (polyethylene) bags symbolize this cultures’ dependence and obsession with plastic– an addiction. As polyethylene is produced and consumed, it harms both the land we inhabit and our individual/ collective health.