Saguaro
Performance & Installation

Duration: 


2018 - ongoing

Location:
Perimeters of Saguaro cacti natural biome


SONORAN DESERT
SOUTHERN ARIZONA - USA
NORTHERN SONORA - MÉXICO



MATERIALS
BETWEEN ELECTRO-CARDIOGRAMS & 
RATTLESNAKE VENOM 

Partners
Cristóbal Martínez, Elza Tamas






ALL THE TRIANGLES IN THE MAP INDICATE SAGUARO ‘COMMUNITIES’. THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE SAGUARO’S ARE NATIVE TO IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!


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The perimeter of the saguaro’s natural biome interrupted by the U.S. Mexico border, also represents a border onto itself endowing the project into an inquiry between natural and political border and their relationship as they apprehend one another.
Borderlands politics and the region’s desolate landscape provide a base for the military, drug cartels, border patrol, and civilization. These realities are in constant communication through radio waves (a sonoric sub-reality that permeate physical borders). Ecologically, the land is abused by overdevelopment, draught and invasive species brought by an increasing population to the region. The de-regulation of ecological balance and the misuse of the land is part of a dysfunctional utilitarian narrative imposed upon the territory. In attempt to generate a new consciousness of body and territory, I will utilize the saguaro as an ancient metaphoric antenna -- receiving overlapping realities of the region since the early formation of its bioregion and into the present.

Throughout the performance of Saguaro, I will travel along the biome’s perimeter selecting saguaros instinctively. I ‘tap-in' to them by recording their sounds/vibrations through electrocardiograms that transform their electric currents to codes translated into sound through a computer software. As the project moves forward I will build a database of sound and photography of the perimeter while noting each region’s cacti density and gps location.

In exchange for the sound extraction I offer dropplets of rattlesnake venom authorized by an anonimous source. The offerings closes a cycle of cure given that venom is only cured by venom.The core sickness is expressed through systematic neoliberal opression over ecology, animals, local population and more over the Native communities of the Sonoran Borderlands. Rattlesnake being the largest source of natural predatorial venom of the territory becomes the means, in which, the sagurao perimeter is ‘encircled’ in an active spiritual work.   

The recordings and territorial data serve to inform social-political, ecological and spiritual concerns. As such, the purpose of Saguaro is to form a shared awareness’s between myself and the people I meet along the way. I hope to create a space for conversation and connectivity in challenging the idea of ‘borders’ and the many overlapping uses of these territories.




 


INSTALLATION TBA