Lateral Ache
(select images from a work-in-progress)
2024-ongoing

While the word lateral can be defined as side-to-side movement akin to the physical acts of weaving, or as a shoot or branch growing out from the side of a stem, it is undeniably tethered to the word ‘violence’ within oppressed communities.  Lateral violence- a displaced and deeply pained frustration turned toward one another within oppressed communities rather than toward oppressors (a direct result of being stripped of and left to fend for cultural, spiritual and personal identity, land, livelihood, community, language, religion, resources, power and autonomy among many other things).  Lateral Ache nods to the softer and, at times, unspoken ache that ripples across communities over generations and the resilience required to navigate such things.  For these pieces, I foraged natural materials while on hikes in California, including native species (various types of rush used in Native weaving, toyon leaves, lace lichen) and introduced species (palm, which arrived during the Mission period and rapidly spread across California during various land booms) impacting the land and those who have stewarded it throughout its history.