Lucia Hierro. Can I Borrow a Cup of Sugar, 2020. Digital print on brushed suede, foam, and packing peanuts. 39 x 38 x 32 inches. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by PAMM’s Collectors Council with additional contributions provided by Karen Bechtel, Evelio and Lorena Gomez, Jorge M. Pérez, and Craig Robins 

Lucia Hierro’s Can I Borrow a Cup of Sugar (2020) is a monumental sculpture of a bag of Domino sugar. Using brushed suede and digital printing techniques, the work offers an oversized representation of this everyday object. The title suggests a typical gesture within Latinx communities in which neighbors often borrow from one another when needed. Lingering beneath Hierro’s fun and lighthearted representation of the sugar bag are the political implications that this product has had throughout its history. Sugar was the primary product of slave labor in the Caribbean; in the modern context, it is one of the main food industries directly damaging the natural environment. Hierro’s witty, playful, and audacious work employs Latinx and Caribbean vernaculars to explore the relationships between identity, objects, and consumption.