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<div></div><p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue"">Hello everyone,</p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue"">What great conversations. I have been working through the forum, and I am really drawn to the concept of “two-eyed vision” and its relation to storytelling and narratives. I’m happy to say that this past week, I have been installing my thesis exhibition and passed my oral defense on Thursday. I would like to share my artist statement for the work as it relates to cosmology theories in physics and cosmology narratives found in Mexica (Aztec) culture. I was inspired by my time spent in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile this past summer.</p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue"">While there, I experienced slow time. I participated in an artist residency, that had a big impact on me. I connected with the land, was invited to participate in ceremonies that gave thanks to Pacha Mama, and had conversations about the urgency that Pacha Mama herself<span> </span>was communicating through the very distinct presence of colonization and attempts to further extract resources from sacred lands. I began to question my understanding of western science and the indigenous narratives that were shared with me.</p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue"">Halfway through my residency, I wrote a breakup letter to colonization and began my storyboard and narrative for my experimental/animation/performance video. In the video, I take a journey to the center of the galaxy and sacrifice my body to a black hole to then be reborn into the cosmos with new sacred cosmic knowledge and the understanding that to in order to connect to the galaxy and universe, I had to consciously and physically surrender myself. This video also became an act of resistance, and a way to decolonize my body.<span> </span>The following is taken from a portion of my statement.</p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue"">Nāntli Cemanāhuatl is driven by a culmination of the psychological effects caused by world politics, immigration policies, and news and events surrounding climate change, and my personal experience of connecting to the planet as a whole. I am one of many who is concerned for the present state and future of humanity and the planet. My personal experiences become collections in an archive that reflect the human condition. </p>
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<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue""> I am a Mexican-American Woman living on planet earth. I am an immigrant living in a border state. I am a colonized body, I consume technology. I understand that my actions have repercussions. We have failed our responsibility to take care of our planet. I understand that we are consumers in a world that has detached itself from nature and our planet, the thing that provides us with resources to live out our lives. I understand that I myself am a walking contradiction. I understand that my light skin allows me to walk through the world with more ease. I understand Spanish. I understand English. I speak Spanglish. I understand that stars are masses made of hydrogen that create their own energy to sustain themselves, and so do plants. I understand that the ‘star stuff’ we are all made of resides not only within every single human, but it dances throughout distant galaxies. I understand that when I sit on the earth and give thanks to all she provides, I am connecting to Madre Tierra in the humblest way that I know how. I understand that I am not the only one who has a narrative to share. </p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue"">It is my hope that this narrative inspires others to think of their own origin story. It is my hope that these narratives can be shared with one another as ways to relate, care, and show compassion. This work is dedicated to migrants all around the world who make dangerous journeys in search of more prosperous futures and to those who have had their own personal journey in life, whatever that may be. We are all a part of this world, each, with a story to tell. Each narrative holds a place in this cosmos, a star of sorts, each one lit with a bright light, shining brightly in our night sky. <span> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px"><br></p><p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px">Below are some stills from the video.</p><div><img src="cid:ii_k33u2qkw3" alt="NC3.JPG" width="452" height="225"><br></div><div><div><img src="cid:ii_k33u3j8m4" alt="NC2.JPG" width="452" height="241"><br></div><div><img src="cid:ii_k33u3r6a5" alt="NC1.JPG" width="452" height="235"><br></div></div><p style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";min-height:14px"><br></p></div>