Volcanic Memories

Volcanic Memories is a thesis project that explores cultural identity and how this unfolds through memory, history, time, and intergenerational experiences of trauma, celebration, hope, immigration and collective and personal nostalgia in the context of El Salvador and its diaspora. The entry point to this thesis project began with Ajkewa, which is my first installation in the MFA program. This work marks a transformation in regards to the character of my practice from working with 2D projected experimental digital moving image to one that inhabits space and dimensionality. With this first exercise of projection mapping, I became very interested in activating the way in which the viewer interacts with moving image, visual narrative, objects and the space that these elements inhabit. Somos Shikilit is an experimental digital interactive installation and forms part of my thesis exhibition. The title translates into We are Indigo - Somos is Spanish and Shikilit is Nahuat. This work explores cultural identity through the history of indigo in El Salvador. It is a nostalgic celebration and exploration of cultural identity through the use of colour, texture and abstract forms. With this piece I began exploring an iterative manner of working which has been a great creative exercise and is now informing my practice in a very significant way. The artwork titled Shuchikisa completes my thesis exhibition and project. It is a commemoration of the spirit of resistance and how this moves through time, history and memory. The title in Nahuat translates into “to bloom”. Shuchikisa is conceived to be a projection mapping moving image installation. Through this thesis project, I have learned to invest my practice further in a deep emotionality that is concerned with the complexities of my cultural identity as well as my experiences as part of the Salvadoran diaspora. Acknowledging the weight and significance of cultural, social and political inheritance has become important in my creative process and practice. In my work, these experiences are expressed in a manner where moving image, sound and sculptural form encompass the subliminal corners of my emotional intellect and imagination.