Artist Dodi Espinosa explores in his projects the banana as an important key to the history of world trade, colonial politics, and ecological vulnerability. Although the banana is the world's most traded fruit and seems like an everyday product, it carries a heavy geopolitical history.
In his work, Espinosa poses the sharp question: “What does it mean that a banana crosses a border more easily than a human?” He uses the iconic yellow and black color palette of the curved fruit to play with camouflage, geography, and power structures, but also to expose the absurdity of world trade.
At the same time, he points to the current threat to the Cavendish banana, which is being affected by a new fungal variant, a warning about the broader social and ecological fragility of our time.
Espinosa’s work challenges us to think: when will the true, complex story of the banana be as well-known as the fruit itself?
