Set of 500 handmade miniature books inside matchboxes, with one match. Designed specifically for a Chilean audience as part of Denison senior honors thesis, "Bricolage: Chilean Girls' Use of Media & Material Culture in Constructing Gender Identity."
To be displayed by "guerilla" means, in fishbowls at local Chilean bars and other public places where matches are free to public. In gallery, to be taken away for free by patrons.
The Copihue flower pictured on the front of the matchbox is the national flower of Chile, and the name of the most popular national brand of matches. Identical layout meant to be a trompe l'oeil.
Orange cover of books refers to branding of Abastible, national leader in gas tanks for use in heating water for the home. Matches themselves become a symbol of domesticity in Chile because of need to light water heater whenever it is used.
Fine art piece employing languages of marketing and design to provoke questioning.
Images reflect localized symbolism related to youth culture, gender & the historical Chilean women's rights movement.
Running text is an excerpt from Chilean Poet-Laureate Gabriela Mistral's poem, "Copihues." Appearing on their money and a parallel figure to Pablo Neruda, Mistral is a matriarchal figure in the national imagination.
Match serves as a symbol of personal volition and power, but also of protest from the time of Chilean dictatorship.
At this point in reading, match falls out, and unconventional binding of book becomes apparent.
Landscape panoramic spreads reveal surprise secondary text, "¿Ya estaàfeliz?" Are you [already] happy? (with slang.) Text references popular Abastible commercial from 2005. Frying pan a Chilean symbol of discord between social classes during the pre-dictatorship in Chile.
Singed matches float down the Mapocho River, which flows through the center of Santiago and stands as a symbol for social class.
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