Barrels to boxes

Series 1: A photo typology of the boxes that have been sent to Venezuela by individualsand by a London based humanitarian program. Each box has a story.

The misery has overflown beyond the frontiers of the country, wealth does not come in the form of barrels anymore it comes in the form of boxes. Thousands of boxes are sent to Venezuelan people or NGO’s from Venezuelans abroad to help with the crisis that the country is facing. This project is about these boxes and the experience of being a Venezuelan abroad – like me - sending food and/or medicines home.  

Reducing human existence to misery solely to preserve power is perverse. The bullets no longer hurt, nor the gases, nor the blows what hurts is the hunger (nothing hurts more than to be hungry ... that hunger that can be translated as ingesting foods, to prosper, to create, to do) That was the clamour of the people protesting in the streets last year. It hurts them to be poorer every day, to be reduced to misery - to have hope killed. What happened to the revolution?

Scarcity is the defining aspect of a Venezuelan’s daily life. Paradoxically it is the new face of the oil country. The 2016 Living Conditions Survey* revealed that 82% of the population are poor, more than 74% of the population said that they have lost almost 9 kilograms in weight in the last year and 86% admitted that they ate at most, only twice a day. A common trait emerges: 4% admit to suffering from malnutrition and 93.3 % of homes have insufficient income to buy food. This is partly caused by the decrease in the price of oil.

The Government denies that this is happening and does not accept humanitarian aid. Thus, for historical purposes this reality must be recorded and documented, perhaps more importantly this project is necessary in order to sound the alarm bells and address this situation before its consequences irrevocably affect future generations.

 Series 2 – Lightboxes and cyanotypes

This a recreation of the boxes to represent the main products that are most difficult to find and the one sent by each participant. The cyanotypes are on transparencies inside a lightbox to represent how the boxes would look going through the x-ray machine at customs. The shadow of the object in the cyanotypes symbolised the absence of the product in the country.