The Ancestry Triptych, 2024

Oil on Three Canvases


In these challenging modern times, recent reports by UNESCO warn that artificial intelligence poses a threat to our collective memory. AI-generated content can fabricate or distort historical records and amplify biases, enabling malicious individuals and hate groups to spread disinformation and construct new narratives.


In light of this, my family and I decided to take various scientific tests to determine our ancestry composition. The results revealed that I am 10% West African (from Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone), 25% Indigenous American (from the Colombian Central and Western Andes), and 65% Southern European (from Portugal, Spain, and Italy).  Learning these specifics inspired me to create The Ancestry Triptych, which I acknowledge by depicting each ancestry group based on my historical understanding of their shared emotional and psychological consciousness.


The Ancestry Triptych consists of the following three works (left to right): The Beginning of the End, Coloniser, and The Defilement of Alkebu-lan.





JUAN DIAZ