Hasani Sahlehe: 'BANANA REPUBLIC'

The SCAD Museum of Art presents "Banana Republic," an exhibition by Hasani Sahlehe (B.F.A., painting, 2015). Through his unique perspective growing up in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Sahlehe investigates the culture of his home island. The exhibition features new paintings that consider colonization of the Caribbean and its effects on food sources and plant species.

"Banana Republic" examines the exchange of culture through plant life and fruit. Abstractions of flora from St. Thomas are depicted in the paintings. The artist’s fascination with his homeland’s vegetation came through realizations that such plants were in fact cultivated through colonization and the slave trade. 

For example, rice, as depicted in his painting "A Quarter Piece" is a staple ingredient in the cuisines of the Caribbean, but was originally introduced to the Americas by European colonizers. Similarly, the banana, a native species of Africa, found its way to the Caribbean in the early 16th century by way of Spanish missionaries, after the plant had been taken from West Africa and cultivated in the Canary Islands by the Portuguese.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website