In the tryptic El jardín de las delicias, we recognize a landscape populated with grotesque creatures similar to the Renaissance paintings “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch. Through the absurdities we learn of the struggle between morality and pleasure, power and privilege. Dobler Dzul is also bridging our gaps of knowledge and making historical connections.

Here in Dobler Dzul’s paintings she is reinventing landscapes, and depicting the cycles of life with many creatures of varying races and genders colliding together. Her vibrant brown bodies in their caustic landscapes yearn to be seen as sublime, for their greatness beyond calculation or measurement.

In Dobler Dzul’s versions she is giving power to what others perceive as primitive. She is amplifying representations of wealth and power through an Indigenous perspective by referencing postures of Renaissance paintings and imbuing Mexican cultural relics like glyphs and wrestling masks. Through her own symbology is unpacking references of police brutality, white supremacy, rape, lust, and death. She says she applies those tactics of composition to “dream up what future ancestors and lands would look like if they were given the opportunity of perseverance and care for our ancestral lands.”

In these paintings, we understand the strength of dreams and the blending of dreamstate with reality. Dobler Dzul is perpetuating the hard truths and experiences by indigenous people through time. She says of the paintings, “Its also in dialogue with how Western religion and colonization have contributed to massive illiteracy, erasure of identity and native language.”

The borders are filled with Mayan hieroglyph-inspired imagery that represent animals, spirits, and women. In El jardín de las delicias: Tierra, wrestlers, animals, and deities are besieged by armed policemen, indicating a battle for the garden of earthly delights.