Pure Plantainum

ELIA ALBA: Hello, my name is Elia Alba, and I am a multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York City. I have chosen to talk about Miguel Luciano’s work “Pure Plantainum.” I’ve known Miguel for over 10 years, and his piece is one of my favorite pieces in the show, so you can say I’m a little biased about it. What’s so exciting about his work is that he’s made the plátano, the green plantain, his muse. The plátano here is not only a stereotypical symbol but an iconic symbol, especially within the Puerto Rican and Dominican communities. What’s fascinating here is the contrast between the decadence of the platinum and the actual plantain.

There was a time that Puerto Ricans and Dominican immigrants were derogatorily referred to as “plátanos” when they arrived in New York. Even within the island, the association with or, if you will, “la mancha del plátano” – in other words the stain of the plantain – unfavorably alluded to the mark of one’s skin color and class. In the States, “la mancha del plátano” at one point referred to one’s newness, one’s recent entry or arrival into the country. Ironically, that pristine exterior gives way to a fruit that has decomposed inside, symbolic for me of the precarious concepts of identity, as well as the passing away, if you will, of those old notions of the plátano that have morphed into this new, platinum meaning: consumerism, appropriation, and hip-hop culture. “The king is dead; long live the king.”

Miguel once told me that if you shake this object, the decomposed food has converted itself into a seed-like form, alluding to like, maracas or other musical instruments made out of fruit and typical of the Caribbean. These juxtapositions, these multi-layered meanings are inherent not only in this work, but it is a thread that runs throughout Miguel’s practice. Is it a food? Is it a necklace? Is it an instrument? No, it’s the plátano. The beauty of this piece is that Miguel has taken that cultural stigma of the plantain and made it into a precious jewel, an icon, an urban expression of pride.