As a first-generation American POC woman, I’ve started reclaiming indigenous/ancestral spiritual practices in order to deepen my connection to the earth and its presence in ways that go beyond data. Data is an important analyzing tool but is often ignored because people grasp at stories more readily as they are more engaging than numbers. Numbers and facts alone do not inspire enough action, however tapping into the moral and ethical principles can do the trick. For example, the viral picture of a dying polar bear, while tragic, could be too shameful and stifle action.
Is it possible that indigenous/ancestral spiritual practices could alter the presentation of climate change? How can indigenous/ancestral spiritual practices play into the presentation of climate change? What might the marriage between climate data and spiritual practices look like? For this residency, I want to explore visualizing climate data using spiritual iconography and rituals. I am interested in a change that goes beyond data, tapping into the data as a visual reference that strengthens our relationship to Earth.
Santeria is a very visual spiritual practice. From its altars to its jewelry, it plays with color and ornaments that pay homage to its orishas (deities) and omnipresence. Care to climate is such an integral part of the practice to the point that the orishas are elements of the earth (water, fire, etc.). For this residency, I’m interested in creating an altar to Yemaya, the Yorùbá Orisha or ‘Goddess of the living ocean’, considered to be the mother of all. When practitioners, daughters and sons of Yemaya, embody her in spiritual dances they move a large flowy skirt and sculpt it to resemble water. I want to create a sculpture of Yemaya whose skirt is modeled based on climate data (see sketch below.) Surrounded by other altered traditional objects, this sculpture will serve as its centerpiece.
I created my first body scan. It got me thinking about “drawing” in 3D with scanned objects, meaning that I could potentially scan things separately and put them together in a less realistic way. I think this opens up the doors to be able to play with the visuals more and a more interesting approach to creating “drawings” with realistic textures. I will explore some of that as I get more comfortable with the scanning process.
