Environmental devastation, mass produced food products with little nutrients and big health concerns are just a few of the consequences related to outsourcing Americas farms to mega corps.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/environmental-news/the-financialisation-of-farmland-and-the-war-on-food-and-farming

In anticipation of the (now virtual) New York Caribbean Week and the annual Labor Day Parade, this August we’re highlighting artworks in the Museum’s collection that celebrate the presence of Caribbean culture and its diasporas.

Where is history housed? In toy sabers, baby dolls, silhouettes of Queens, or in a diamond? Koh-i-noor is one of three portraits by Hew Locke of Queen Elizabeth II that repurposes an iconic image of the British crown through an assemblage of mass produced plastic objects. Locke, who was born in Edinburgh and raised in newly independent Guyana, explores themes of diaspora, globalization, and the complexities of national identity.The title of this artwork refers to the Koh-i-noor (Mountain of Light) diamond which passed through empires and dynasties of Sikh, Mughal and Persia as a symbol of power and conquest. The Koh-i-noor entered the British Crown Jewel collection in 1877 in the wake of the British government’s proclamation of Queen Victoria as the Empress of India. Weaving together the material excess of the global economy and its colonial roots, Locke creates a material geography and archive of something lost. However, the dismemberment and assemblage of the iconic image through fragments also paints a site of possibility. Koh-i-noor invites us to reimagine new landscapes of memory that speak back to and move beyond geographies of domination.

“Mass Produced Post Offices for Minor Provincial Towns”, Italy [1978] _ Architects: Andrea Branzi and Clino T. Castelli.