Petal Politics Fleur Cacao is a ceramic invocation of the tropical blossom at the origin of chocolate, rendered not as ornament but as offering. Echoing the cauliflorous flowering of the cacao tree, where life erupts directly from the trunk, this piece embodies fertility and the unseen labor of pollinators. Each cacao flower lasts only a single day, a fleeting presence that underscores the precarity and beauty of transformation. In this transience lies a quiet urgency: life blossoming briefly, demanding witness.

Infused with the scent of vanilla, the piece deepens its sensory and symbolic charge. Native to Mesoamerica like cacao, vanilla carries with it the layered histories of ritual, extraction, and desire. Its aroma, warm, sweet, and universally evocative, echoes the soft, milky sweetness of early nourishment. Though chemically distinct, vanilla shares a comforting resonance with the scent of breast milk, evoking primal memories of care and intimacy across cultures. Vanilla’s scent transcends borders and cultures, linking memory with the warmth of care, the pleasure of indulgence, and the hunger for sweetness. Vanilla becomes both balm and indictment: a scent through which sweetness reveals its role in the architectures of extraction. and empire.

Like much of Chaveli Sifre’s work, Petal Politics Fleur Cacao draws from Caribbean cosmologies and the material wisdom of plants to reframe the botanical as both sacred and political. It invites participants to reflect on material culture and its influence on our surroundings and contemporary realities. The discussion centers on chocolate, the extraction of goods from the Global South, the politics of consumption, and the hidden costs of certain indulgences. Here, the cacao flower becomes a vessel: for scent, for memory, for the many histories embedded in a blossom.

More about Sobremesa Visual Art Exhibition here and the Guided Tours here.