In 40 Nego Bom 1 Real [40 Black Candies for 1 Real], 142 pieces of text and images, which are laid out across a wall spanning about 15 meters long, can be viewed in two parts. The first part shows the process of making Nego Bom candies, the banana-flavored candy popular in Northeastern Brazil, through pictures and a detailed recipe. The second part consists of a wage calculation chart, which also contains information on the particular characteristics of forty individual workers, including job descriptions, relationship on the job site, and even personal details. However, the workers’ wages are not simply calculated in numbers according to volume of work; rather they are calculated to reflect each worker’s relationship to the employer and other individual particularities. Delving more deeply into issues such as postcolonialism, post slavery, and cheap labour, the artist uncovers the hidden dark side of Brazilian culture, which is the mixed product of colonizers, slaves, and indigenous peoples.
For the title of the work, the artist has chosen “40 Black Candies for 1 Real,” which is a phrase commonly shouted by market vendors selling Nego Bom candy. In Portuguese, Nego Bom literally means “good black,” and “nego” (for male), or “nega” (for female), is a friendly way of calling each other. However, linguistically these words also have historical, colonial, and racist connotations.
