Ester Hernandez

For this week’s blog post, I decided to comment on the artist Ester Hernandez and her piece Sun Mad. In 1981, Hernandez learned that commercial farming often uses heavy amounts of pesticides and insecticides to keep produce fresh. Therefore, in this piece, Hernandez expresses her rage about the environmental cost and pesticide use on commercial grape farming in California. She makes a highly daring, political, and social statement, by creating an image that the public already created strong associations with nostalgia and innocence.  I definitely remember eating Sun Maid brand raisins in elementary school innocently, without understanding the implications associated with modern farming practices. By creating a similar image, it attracts audience attention where she can effectively share her message. By replacing the lively woman with a skeleton, emphasizes the long-term effects chemicals have on the human body.

It almost been 35 years since this image was released, and society still demonstrates this issue. However additional dangerous farming techniques have been introduced, sun as the idea of genetically modified foods. After all these years consumers still are not aware the methods their foods are produced, which can be detrimental to their health. The work of Ester Hernandez stands the test of time because her message is still relevant in modern day.