Lagos Biennial: REFUGE

Yasmin Smith Wound response, 2024 Commissioned by Lagos Biennial 2024 artist statement The term ‘wound response’ refers to the natural defence reaction of rubber trees to heal cuts in their bark by bringing latex to the wounded area. There are 2500 species of plants that produce natural rubber latex. Throughout the modern era, rubber was a vital raw material resource to the economic growth and expansion of European empires. Up until the mid-nineteenth century, wild rubber was entering the European market from Africa and Asia, as well as from wild rubber trees in the Amazon where Indigenous peoples had first...