DONDE DESEMBOCO
2020

The artist sits on the beach and begins to desperately dig into the sand with her bare hands. As the artist continues digging, she screams into the hole in the Earth.  This action continues until the hole is large enough for the artist to fit her full body. The artist places herself inside the hole and sits in fetal position as she cries into the Earth. Once inside the hole, the artist seemingly disappears into the landscape while the waves push and pull as the tide grows behind her.

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This site-specific durational performance is a meditation addressing the internalized pain and sorrows that are retained in the body after leaving one's home. Summoning the works of the late Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series (1973-1978) and Esculturas Rupestres (1981), this performance channels the body in conversation with nature as a contemplation of the intersections between the primitive, the divine feminine, and embodied trauma. By immersing herself into the landscape of her homeland, the artist creates a space that represents sanctuary and alludes to the innate human instinct to return Earth as the original womb.

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The physical elements of this piece remain only as a recording of the past. The sand sculpture carved into the beach for the artist to inhabit becomes overtaken by the ocean's tide and the surrounding fauna and flora once the artist leaves the scene. This is an intentional element of the meditation piece-- sculpting the natural landscape for the human body to temporarily inhabit as a cathartic practice. The artist incorporates the natural cycles of the environment as an extension of the sculpture. As the sculpture vanishes it takes on a new life and meaning until it completely disappears and remains only shared memory between the artist and the Earth.