The Banana Peel

I enjoy absurd humor and the surreal. This is an attempt to combine the two into a single project. The idea is to produce as realistic a 5-6' tall banana peel as I can out of available materials. (Preliminary research leads me to believe I may be able to do this with thick foam padding, latex or vinyl, and paint.)

The original idea for this project was to produce many of these large banana peels, and install them through the city of San Francisco. Attempting to install these large, cartoonish peels drooped over street signs, hanging from street lights, flopped over the corner of a building's roof, or just splayed out on a park side bench. Unfortunately, due to a lack of materials and resources, I have yet been able to more forward with this aspect of the project.

As a possible beginning (and a way to help find further funding for the more elaborate project), I would like to create just one large banana peel. I would then photograph the peel in different locations. At first, I would attempt to make the banana peel seem somewhat to scale, or in mostly banal places. As the photo series continues, I would begin to place the peel in more unusual situations, perhaps even anthropomorphizing it into some sort of sentient being. My hope would be that the peel begins to do normal human things, like taking a walk, enjoying coffee, watching a movie with a cuddling friend.

I may even attempt to leave the peel, posed as if reading a book, at a local coffee shop and record how passerby react to its presence.

Financiado pelo capítulo San Francisco, CA (February 2017)