Penitent Plant is centred around the Philippines’ role as the third largest exporter of bananas in the world. By tracing the production and consumption of Cavendish bananas, Cian Dayrit lays bare the global chain of supply and demand for the tropical fruit. Instead of surveying the existing infrastructures that enable the production and consumption of the Cavendish banana, Dayrit turns our attention towards the experiences of workers and their stories. The central textile features a banana tree surrounded by references to organisations and industry players that dominate the business of growing and exporting the fruit, and this is in turn built on a composite image of banana plantations in Mindanao. Penitent Plant is the outcome of Cian Dayrit’s long-term commitment to and engagement with activism in Mindanao. The hand-drawn maps featured alongside the central textile are the result of counter-mapping workshops. Each map is a different assemblage, revealing the individual daily routines of workers whilst expressing their struggles and aspirations. These interventions imbue the scientific act of cartography with a playful subjectivity. By including these documents, the artist invites viewers to consider the imperfections of data collection and urges us to advocate for stories from the margins on their own terms.Cian Dayrit’s artistic strategies draw upon a framework that posits cartography as a colonial tool that administers violence and oppression. To subvert the authority of the all-knowing map, Penitent Plant does not adhere to the hallmarks of mapmaking (e.g. indexical accuracy and topographies of scale)–yet it arguably provides a more precise lay of the land regarding the production and export of Cavendish bananas in the Philippines.
