A site specific performance done in collaboration with B’alam Garcia on a Sunday evening; duration about 40 minutes. Initial description of the project was an attempt to agitate desires (for Black suffering) activated or summoned by a performance. This work drew reference directly from time spent experiencing the country of nation commonly known as Guatemala through people and land and integrate principles of community engaged research into performance work, materiality and oration; in addition to continuing the research of “As if a captive controls conditional logic (2024).”
Throughout the performance I told three stories, none fully scripted; each topically dealing with personal relationships, love and loneliness.
The material was yucca paste and dyed, fine grain sand and finely ground wood chips (a bit thicker than wood dust) typically used to create “Alfombras,” or flower carpets for Catholic processions during lent and holy days. These, sometimes densely complex and ornate carpets are then walked over by Cucuruchos, bearers of biblical scene floats.
This palette was CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, key) + White, continuing this from past painting work; this evoking a constraint of the digital space. This palette works together to anchor the markings as representations of a Black technical object IRL (in real life), that object being my body.
The remnants of the work were removed one day after the performance, possible evidence of both the ephemeral nature of the material and its evocation of anti black desire.
Photos courtesy of Josue Castro
