One of the things that interests me is how being from a place or a condition can mark how an image is perceived. For these works I used laundry bags, often associated with working class and migrations, and painted trees, bananas and solid colours, reminiscent of the Caribbean. A few years ago the fashion designer Demna did a campaign at Balenciaga, for which they produced a version of the blue Ikea bags. A lot of the conversations around it were about the high price of these bags and how it was the ultimate example of late-stage capitalism. I knew about Demna’s own history of migration and when I saw the bag, I saw aspiration - something very common for immigrants. This series of paintings is also about what one leaves behind, as coming to Brazil was my first return to South America, where i was born and a reminder of what my family left behind when they moved to New York City - like access to nature and fruits.