Extinct Armoatorium — Allie E.S. Wist

Extinct Armoatorium, 2022
Plexiglass, perfume of banana, dirt, and fungus

Exhibited at:
Uncommon Senses, Center for Sensory Studies, Montreal, CA, 2022
b-priori, Collar Works, Troy, NY 2022

Artificial banana flavoring used in candy and ice cream do not taste like ‘real’ bananas because the flavoring is a chemical composition that ultimately reflected the sweeter taste of the now-extinct Gros Michel banana (at least in the United States, although it was associated with pear in Europe). The Gros Michel was the favored, monocropped banana in the United States until a fungus (fusarium oxysporum) wiped it out completely by the 1950s. We now consume the Cavandish variety, which is also under threat of extinction, as climate change is making it more vulnerable to disease.