Smooth Cayenne Notes, a natural-dye textile installation, traced the global journeys of the pineapple since the 19th century, exploring its ecology and hidden bonds with other plants through color. While the fruit’s form and sweetness have long captivated imaginations, its potential as a source of dyes from roots, leaves, and rinds has been less examined. Plant-based color, historically tied to systems of value, acted as an archive of soil health, biodiversity, and environmental memory.

The work brought together around one hundred textile squares, dyed with plants and soils from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific, suspended inside an Azorean pineapple greenhouse. This setting highlighted the unique history of these local infrastructures as spaces of care and innovation. Using dye-baths from pineapple rinds and leaves on piña fiber, the installation generated a “plantone” catalogue mapping the plant’s entanglements with other species and territories. Over the course of two months, the hues shifted with the sunlight, offering a living record of transformation and resilience.