When the pandemic hit, I started making heart-like organ figures as part of a daily grieving and healing ritual (many of them sent to loved ones in Brazil). ‘Heart-of-Earth’ is presented as a site-specific installation, combining a collection of 52 ‘hearts’ with two phrases I kept close during this pandemic:
‘NÓS SOMOS UM CORAÇÃO SÓ, UMA TERRA SÓ, UMA ALMA SÓ’
- Davi Kopenawa
‘WE ALL BREATHE OF THE SAME BREATH’
- Rina Swentzell
This ancestral knowledge from two indigenous elders, one from Brazil and the other from the U.S., were threads of hope I held onto, guiding me in this challenging moment.
Their words are written in a line of earth directly on the wall, guiding the constellation of heart-paintings placed at variable heights on the wall.
For this installation, each heart-painting was defined according to the height of the staff members of the Brazilian Consulate in New York and the group involved in the exhibition, honoring this temporary community.
*A print with the painting and phrase from Davi Kopenawa was distributed to all Consulate’s staff members.