Abya Yala / Guna (2024 / 2025)
artist's hair on cotton bedsheets
dimensions variable
Kunstverein Braunschweig 2025
L: Abya Yala / Guna (2024 / 2025)
R: Aotearoa / Maori (2025)
artist's hair on cotton bedsheets
dimensions variable
Kunstverein Braunschweig 2025
Abya Yala / Guna (2024 / 2025)
artist's hair on cotton bedsheets
dimensions variable
Kunstverein Braunschweig 2025
From the series Waters (2024 / 2025 - )
In response to Donald Trump‘s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, the works takes up the term Abya
Yala. In critical discourse, it is used by the indigenous peoples of this region as the name for the landmass we know today as America. It originates from the Guna culture and translates as “land in full bloom.” In reflection on my own roots and in solidarity, "Gulf of America" is embroidered with my hair on a light blue bedsheet. With its shape, color, and drape, the sheet evokes the water that surrounds these land masses and, as the Maori say, connects them. The material refers to an everyday sphere in which, however, the private andthe political are connected on many levels. The hair embroidery on the textile evokes moments of disturbance, such as hair left behind on a hotel bed, tangled in a fiber of a freshly washed shirt, or lurking in the soup.
Yala. In critical discourse, it is used by the indigenous peoples of this region as the name for the landmass we know today as America. It originates from the Guna culture and translates as “land in full bloom.” In reflection on my own roots and in solidarity, "Gulf of America" is embroidered with my hair on a light blue bedsheet. With its shape, color, and drape, the sheet evokes the water that surrounds these land masses and, as the Maori say, connects them. The material refers to an everyday sphere in which, however, the private andthe political are connected on many levels. The hair embroidery on the textile evokes moments of disturbance, such as hair left behind on a hotel bed, tangled in a fiber of a freshly washed shirt, or lurking in the soup.