Inspired by the quincentennial celebration of Columbus’s conquest of the Americas and the repercussions of this venture on the land’s inhabitants, artists Ana Ferrer and Kukuli Velarde of the collective Vistas Latinas created the multimedia installation Underdevelopment in Progress / 500 Years.

Consisting of several dozen stuffed, roughly sewn, faceless canvas dolls hanging in the window of the ominously lit SoHo 20 Gallery, the work served as a forcefully disturbing reminder of the imperialist policies of European countries during their explorations of the “new” world.

Vistas Latinas (Ana Ferrer and Kukuli Velarde)

Underdevelopment in Progress / 500 Years

Manhattan

1993