KNEELING NATIVES
Mirror, Vinyl - 29” x 29” - 2023
Kneeling Natives sources its imagery from Walt Disney's Donald Duck "The Secret of Hondorica". This children’s story is emblematic of America’s history of transgressions towards Mesoamericans. It is a story of capitalism, imperialism, and genocide packaged into a digestible format for children. By priming our youth with tales of conquest, the story lays the groundwork for the fundamentals of a capitalistic society– one that correlates positive, morally good qualities to the idea of consumption and material wealth.
Although the illustrations infantilize the atrocities in the story, it only emphasizes the inherently violent system of capitalism. In this work, I force the viewer to reflect on the fictional representations of the not only resource-rich, but also culturally-rich individuals we exploit in order to sustain our first-world lives.