INSPECTED is a public art project
tracing the memory and design of the airport sticker labeling Puerto Ricans “INSPECTED” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
In this U.S. territory, organic goods leaving are inspected or seized for being “threatening” to American agriculture, while those entering are not.
In this U.S. territory, organic goods leaving are inspected or seized for being “threatening” to American agriculture, while those entering are not.
Many Puerto Ricans know the feeling of having a fruit, plant or homemade meal seized before traveling—and have a sticker lingering somewhere to show for it.
Through a WhatsApp voice note archive of inspection stories, multichannel installation, mixtape, and guerrilla sticker campaign, INSPECTED:
- Archives and shares stories of inspection (and resistance)
- Dissects the sticker’s colonial design process
- Re-designs the sticker with an anticolonial message plastered on surfaces across Puerto Rico, it’s diaspora, and the world.