Shifting SEnsoria (2021)

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I breathe in right before I write this first line and exhale in the middle of it. The breath I took is now in the past and can only be recalled from my memory. What did it feel like as my ribs expanded and my posture straightened? Did I actually take a deep inhalation or am I making it up? Because of that breath I took, I am still breathing now. That singular breath now only exists in my memory, and now that memory is shared with you. Will the memory of that breath be forgotten one day, or will it now be preserved because I’ve written about it, passed it on, continuously creating new memory? 

This work is a collection of artifacts alongside performative actions that attempt to recall and preserve memory to understand my identity. I explore the impermanence of the mind and body through my connection to family, ancestors, objects, and where I live. Memory can also be kept in the body, through a learned and practiced skill—a craft, but it also can be stored unintentionally through traumatic experiences. Healing trauma that is stored in the body can be done by releasing the energy stuck there; I’m interested in metabolizing trauma through the act of creating the work. As much as I reflect on the memories I carry, I’m just as intrigued by the ones I forget.

Scythe snath and grips, rope, Grandfather’s canvas drop cloth, 175 lbs of soil, single-channel video with sound

Dimensions variable

Two 1953 half dollar coins, steel, glass bell jar, 

railroad tie, pillow, turmeric

107 x 21 x 19 inches

Video projection, framed photograph, unframed photograph

Duration: 3:49 minute loop

Dimensions variable

Single-channel video, Belgian lace, the artist’s hands

Di Lido leather wallet box containing traces of Grandfather’s scent, 

acrylic vitrine, wood base, hygro-thermometer

13 x 10 x 5 inches

Digital prints, 175 lbs of soil removed

16 x 20 inches