Landscapes
OLD HABIT
In late July and early August, I began to ruminate on the future of Trash Diva, a series that I’ve begun to develop and has shifted in concept so much throughout the year. Trash Diva is a fabulous project that will mean embracing the lighter side of myself, and doing costumes and alter egos to talk about my personal upbringing. Trash Diva encompasses who I want to be, and who I already am. TD takes on a persona of TV character, and we are drawn in by her tragedy, and we root for her because she handles it through beauty and mild delusion. But what comes with Trash Diva is a radical amount of vulnerability, and digging into my personal life, and unearthing things I left long buried.
LANDSCAPE
My body acts as a landscape in the scene of Trash Diva. As I began photographing myself, my body didn't consist of soft hills and sweet peaks. This body has formed over time as a stout vessel. This body has been my protector and my vehicle. I’ve long believed that my body contains my memories, even when my mind doesn’t. This is proven to be physiological true, and my body shows it. I often believed that my history was told mostly on my face, but I find that it presents best on the back of my knees and the sides of my ribs.
WILDERNESS
I’ve pulled a reference from Laura Aguilar, who used her body as a political statement. Within her body contained aspects of her personhood, culture, and queerness. Her existence proves to me the natural beauty of the fat body. The fat body, because of its divots and curves inherently has a beautiful sense of abstraction.
My questions now lie in what my body says and how my practice responds to seeing myself unabashedly. Trash Diva has to live and exist in this form, and the way this body of work will exist and reshape will be amazing to see.
