Through moving image, performance, sound and installation, my work questions the impact of socio-political conditions on ecosystems, ultimately questioning what it means to be human in a time of profound environmental change.
Treading a precarious ground between science-fiction and science-fact (and the muddy sludge in between), my works frequently weave contemporary folkloric stories from popular science origins. In these tales you may encounter resurrected extinct species, non-humans cast as leading protagonists, or perhaps a singing tardigrade goddess.
The final year of my degree was generously supported by a scholarship from the Leverhulme Trust.
Graduation Project
Patchworking together disparate research sources - including field work, biological reports, poetry, children's books, archeological lectures and cooking - into an aquatic fairytale, this work considers the North Sea as a being in and of herself. A being who, just like you, can have a broken heart.
Reflecting on the Dutch storm surge barrier - the Oosterscheldekering - as an intervention that cut the ocean's body in half, we are demanded to question the implications of artificially separating ocean and freshwater for the marine life that constitute the ocean.
Through a dreamt conversation with the ocean, in a world that exists in the mind's eye, the barrier is revealed as not only a physical but an allegorical divide erected by humanity in order to separate Fact from Fiction. Here, stories live in the salty depths of the ocean and are filtered through The Fact Checker (AKA the Oosterscheldekering) until the hard truths are revealed and solidified as rock deposits in the freshwater. However, reality is called into question when a group of otherworldly sea slugs become entangled with the story of Nehalennia, the ancient Goddess of the North Sea.
My work can be found in BAK01, in the Bleijenburg building of KABK. I regret that there is no step-free access to the space, but the work will be available to watch here online for the duration of the degree show (8-11th July).
TOTO TO TOTORO: CAN TALKING ANIMALS SAVE THE WORLD?
Thesis
Post-apocalyptic giant insects, singing mice, poetry by a cockroach, shapeshifting Tricksters, a parrot who speaks Portuguese, a dog who speaks Tagalog, rivers with legal personhood and a scarecrow who was painted into existence by a farmer.
TOTO TO TOTORO: Can talking animals save the world? is an ecological treatise that probes the importance of other-than-human storytelling to form more sustainable ways of planetary being. Toto, the trusty canine from The Wizard of Oz series, guides us through a series of encounters of the animal kind through interviews, poetry, letters and essays by select talking animals from literary and filmic worlds. Through these conversations these talking animals ask if they might be the unexpected key to rupturing the anthropocentric nature-culture divide. And if so, is this enough to save the world?
Designed by Renata Miron Granados.