BECOMING INDIGENOUS 2023
Floor installation
Plastic bottles, each 16 x 7 cm
Dimension variable
2023
Drawing inspiration from James Clifford’s book "Returns – Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century", Becoming Indigenous reflects on the distance between contemporary consumer culture and the values of coexistence and sustainability once embodied by Indigenous ways of life. Jacomella Bonola stages this reflection through the contrast between the natural lemon, a symbol of purity and health, and the plastic bottles that now contain its industrial imitation.
Arranged as a floor installation, the work juxtaposes authenticity and artificiality, revealing the cultural estrangement produced by commodification. The piece transforms the simple act of consumption into a philosophical inquiry about belonging, adaptation, and loss. Through the visual metaphor of “decoration,” Jacomella Bonola underscores how abundance and excess have replaced meaning and connection. Becoming Indigenous becomes a quiet manifesto for re-rooting, an invitation to rediscover ethical relations between humans and the natural world.
Installation view, Galerie Billing Bild, Baar (CH), 2023
© Patricia Jacomella Bonola