Patricia Domínguez Chilean, b. 1984

Patricia Domínguez's practice interwines myths, symbols, and rituals with ideas of extraction, cultural appropriation and the destruction of natural heritage.

Her 2019 exhibition, Green Irises, at Gasworks, London presented a multi-screen video installation alongside a series of altars and totem figures. Combining ethnographic surrealism and science fiction, Domínguez’s work embraces a range of myths and rituals shaped by extractivism and global finance, from the syncretic worship of Our Lady of Cerro Rico, an infamous silver mine in Bolivia where eight million natives died, to the archaeological museum inside Scotiabank’s head office in Cusco, built on top of the ruins of an Incan palace.

Domínguez is currently participating in Rooted Beings, a new group show at the Wellcome Collection in London. The artist has presented a newly commissioned installation which incorporates items from the South American and European collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Wellcome Collection to explore narratives of colonial and neo-colonial violence and honour indigenous knowledge on healing and nurturing the living world. Domínguez's installation, Matrix Vegetal, was co-commissioned by the Delfina Foundation, where she is currently in residency.