Dalla Dalla, The Trouble with Paradise
2021
Silkscreened and woven cotton rayon
28.5 x 28.5 in (72.4 x 72.4 cm)
The “Dalla Dalla” bus is the primary public transportation in Tanzania onto which everyone piles in to get to work. “Paradise” is woven onto the back of the windshield as a form of irony, betraying the real crowdedness and potential discomfort of riding one of these buses. This kind of use of text reflects a continual thematic paradox in my art– works serve as both a celebration and cautionary tale. Language and labor have value in expressing beauty but also exploitation, joy and sorrow.