De nieve y esmeralda, 2025

This two-toned copper and aluminum sculpture by Sofía Salazar Rosales depicts a yagrumo (Cecropia) cutting housed inside a gallon-sized bottle. Native to dense tropical forests, the yagrumo often functions as a visual signal within the landscape. Known for the way its leaves turn silver under certain climatic conditions, such as before a rain shower, its distinctive silhouette has historically been associated with the routes taken by cimarrones (enslaved people who escaped captivity) toward hidden communities of refuge known as palenques. Here, the tree endures as a trace: a reminder that spaces of protection and resistance once existed within the violence of the colonial empire.

The sculpture has undergone processes of electroplating and oxidation, creating a surface that suggests exposure, weathering, and endurance. The tree is encased within a heavy five-liter water bottle—the kind commonly used in cities without reliable access to potable water. This container evokes urban precarity, displacement, and the ongoing conditions of survival in contemporary life.