a mestiza and her particles at Vårutstillingen 2019. Fotogalleriet, Oslo.
Photo credit: Istan Virag.
a mestiza and her particles
series of archival pigment prints
34 x 23 cm (framed)
2019
In the photogravure series “a mestiza and her particles” I take a carte-de-visite photograph of a Filipina Mestiza and abstracted her, deconstructing her image into components which float loosely together on the picture plane. This series of prints explore hybridity, connection to land and the impossibility of policing the borders of identity. Exploring the mestiza identity (an individual of mixed origin) is the starting point for this body of work. Coral collected from the beaches of the Philippines is among pieces of terracotta tile washed ashore on the beaches of Spain. Beads from Ghana, dust particles from Oslo, clumps of human hair, a mango pit. A hybrid composition with no singular origin.
I like thinking about the composition of soil, and the inevitable impurity of it. The hair I shed and the skin that flakes off of me belong to the ecosystem I am living in. Mango leaves will shrivel, dry and decompose. In Genesis 3:19 it is written, “For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.” We are all simultaneously living off of the land, fertilizing it.
