Tony Capellán - Carribean Sea, 1996




Mar Caribe [Carribean Sea], by Tony Capellán.
Plastic and rubber sandals with barbed wire, completed in 1996.

Tony Capellán collected these commonly worn sandals along the bank of the Ozama River in Santo Domingo where they had washed up. The toe strap from each flip-flop has been replaced with barbed wire, transforming this footwear into a symbol of political and economic hardship and undercutting the stereotypical view of the Caribbean Islands as a tropical paradise.