in the works:::

Carceral Ecologies

Landscapes for decolonizing our relations

Carceral Ecologies is an immersive installation project slowly being built out of various research-creation endeavors and media. It comprises video performances, scent and audio components, found objects, translations, etc. Below is the work in progress, fragmented/in stand-alone pieces that have been shown in a gallery or work in progress have yet to be presented.


Words, Words Words (if you’d like)
Carceral Ecologies proposes to define ecologies as environments favorable to living and thriving as humans and non-humans. With care at its core, this performative and mixed media art project aims to partake in exploring how we can decolonize our relations with each other, plants, animals & rocks.

In order to do so it seems crucial to articulate (as in thinking together) extractivity & carcerality as modalities of belonging and relating that one must unlearn. Extractivity refers to colonial, extractive relations to the land/plants, humans and non-humans beings) and carcerality, to various ordinary structures of existence such as those offered within advanced capitalism – common instances of wage work, the patriarchy, normative relationships, naturalized hierarchy, etc. - and slightly less ordinary and less metaphorical ones such as incarceration, forced displacement/migrations/the very existence of borders).

Thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Abroad: Residencies program, I attended a two-months art residency on Tema-Pueblos territory at the Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI), New Mexico, in May and June of 2022.
 

On Being a Guest (2022)

Video piece, White Sands, Mescaleros-Apache territory, New Mexico
Work selected at the 2022 Feminist Bienniale at Woman Made Gallery, Chicago (Sept.-Oct.)

Geology of Desire

two-channel video installation in progress, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

Fences

still from video piece in progress, White Sands, Mescaleros-Apache territory, New Mexico

Olfactive research-creation

invasive species, Quebec, summer 2021
Common Tansy foraged in Quebec with Katie Yung, summer 2021
failed enfleurage, flowers and leaves
 
I have been researching an invasive species called common tansy (tanacetum vulgare), it has historically been used for embalming by early settlers in the Americas (from the 1660s to the 19th century). While it is poisonous, its transporting scent and former purpose suddenly appeared fitting to accompany us in healing/grieving intergenerational trauma. Following the reflection brought about in the work of Kandis Williams, researching invasive species is also an occasion to question what is deemed propagable and desirable within our colonial economies.


I acknowledge and am grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Abroad, Residency program.