WEBVTT

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(birds chirping)

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(water flowing)

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- Place is important in my work.

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Coming from a place that is

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determined in other people's imagination.

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I'm interested in the idea of opacity.

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(street traffic rumbling softly)

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A right to remain opaque,

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even to yourself,

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even things that you may not
understand about yourself,

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and being at peace with that

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and not having to explain
yourself to others.

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I think the way it manifests in my work

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is through all these layers
that I'm playing with.

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Particularly as it relates
to the idea of camouflage,

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'cause I think it's some type
of opacity in a visual way.

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(waves lapping)

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Camouflage is this survival
strategy in the natural world.

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As we navigate society,
this idea of blending in or

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being visible,

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and having control of that,

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I think is a tool for
liberation, in a way.

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(sirens wailing)

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(upbeat Reggaeton music)

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My name is Joiri Minaya.

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I'm a multidisciplinary visual artist

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based in New York from
the Dominican Republic.

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What else do I say?

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My pronouns are she/her.

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I've been interested in patterns
as a metaphor for society.

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How people repeat and
embody these patterns.

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Siboney is about labor

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and unpacking the laboriousness

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behind the facade of tropical packaging,

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and thinking of women's
role in this packaging.

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♪ ♪ ♪

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There's an interesting process

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that happens when you see an image

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that you don't necessarily
have language for immediately.

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♪ ♪ ♪

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I'm interested in how an image

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has the power to transmit
a lot in a very short time,

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but then how you can spend a
longer time with that image

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and unpack all of these other things.

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The Container series
developed from the collages

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that I did initially for

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the Dominican Women Google Search series.

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I started saving the images

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that I found on the Google search

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and classifying them

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by the way they were posing,

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'cause I thought there were some patterns.

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Or maybe I'm just fixated on patterns.

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But I thought there were some patterns

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in the way that women
pose for the cameras.

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Like there was a lot of like arms akimbo

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and like a lot of like obelisk-esque poses

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of women lying on the beach.

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And I started recognizing

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how some of those are
things that I did myself.

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(people chatting)

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Well, I started sewing body suits

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that forced me to embody these poses,

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as an exploration for myself

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but also to question this
type of performativity,

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because you initially
recognize it very quickly

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but then there's the weirdness

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of this person being fully encased.

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(upbeat drumming)

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(car horns honking)

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I grew up in the city of Santo Domingo

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which is full of concrete

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and notoriously lacking public parks.

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I really appreciate nature
when I can access it.

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At the same time, I'm aware of my possible

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probable romanticization of nature.

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When I go back to the region
where my family's from

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I'm really excited about this nature.

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But then my mom is like,

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well, growing up we were really
concerned about parasites

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and like the heat is really awful,

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and you can be raped in the dark.

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So, like there's all of this
fears and dangers of nature

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which are very real.

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(waves lapping)

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(ground crunching under feet)

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Site specificity and the
history that a place has

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has been important,

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specifically with the works
where I'm making new patterns

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in response to the patterns
that I have been appropriating.

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I've been designing
patterns that look tropical

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and are playing with the visual language

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of botanical illustration.

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But, looking at plants that were used

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by people who resisted colonial processes

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through the use of these plants.

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So, some plants have been
used to make weapons,

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sometimes have been used to make poisons,

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sometimes these plants are used
to speak to your ancestors.

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So, I'm interested in all
of these different systems

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of resistance through these plants.

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The main way that I've showcased this

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is printing them on fabric

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that is then used to
cover colonizer statues.

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I'm thinking of a way to
re-signify that public space

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that is used to commemorate
colonial history,

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and instead trying to
commemorate the people

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who resisted colonialism
who don't have a statue.

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Just thinking of public space

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as this space that's
supposed to be democratic,

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but then, of course,

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there's like forces that
determine what is more significant

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and what is left out.

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I'm trying to tell the
stories that remain untold.

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(upbeat percussive music)