Joiri Minaya: Redecode

Redecode: a tropical theme is a great way to create a fresh, peaceful, relaxing atmosphere is derived from two wallpapers designed in the 1940’s for sumptuous redecorations in luxurious hotels in the United States.

Recalling scientific illustrations, the original patterns belong to a style popularized at midcentury. Names such as “Brazilliance,” designed for the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia by Dorothy Draper, and “Martinique Banana Leaf,” designed for the Beverly Hills Hotel by Don Loper allude to their relationship to tropical landscapes. This stylistic interest coincides with the peak period of U.S. interventions into Latin America and the Caribbean.

These designs and their names offer a way to explore some of the constructed notions of fantasy, exoticism, pleasure, domestication, and consumerism associated with the tropical landscape and its subjects that still prevail today.

Exhibition overview from El Museo del Barrio website