In the absence of a codex or quipu, how do we know the stories that surround the sonic instruments that were once abundant in the shores of Pacific South America? Stories that once again connected memory to the universe, and seed to the human. These photographs attempt to create a Latinx futurism archive while questioning how we create images for the present that come from the future-past. queering the colonial use of photography
Through time working with communities, listening to the elders talk around the fire, witnessing how certain ceremonies replenish the nectar of life. I have gathered some stories and speculated on images and potential rituals.
Magic Passes (pasos magicos), trumpet, shells, achiote ink photograph, 2022. Long ago, there was a plant or fungi maybe both that was taking anally, and this elicit a heightened state of mind. So much so, that the participant felt that they were grandpa fire itself. The release happened orally, the guttural sound that came from the participant was said to be like the sound that emanates from a trumpet.-oral story
Wayra Shungu, single tube ceramic whistle necklace, wayusa leafs, photograph, 2022. The body is split open, the limb moves, nothing is still, both participant and healer are torn into pieces, the motion of the universe is creating a new life, it is finding its original form. -oral story. Bodily dismemberment that occcurs in healing rituals.
Calling song, frog motif ceramic, ribbons, achiote ink, photograph, 2022. Calling song, embodies a Frog posture while playing a frog whistle with carnival strings. This photograph is informed by ecosystems in coastal Ecuador, it aims to highlight the importance of frogs as barometers of climate and the impact that industrialization has in the preservation of these forests. As much as 98% of the Pacific Forest has been lost in just one century. Most of it has been converted to marginally productive cattle pasture"