The inspiration for my project Lof in Transit started with an encounter that happened some years ago after moving to live in San Francisco. I was visiting the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park and I saw for the first time in my life a Foye tree, also known as canelo (Drimys Winteri). Native to southern Chile and Argentina, it is a tree of deep cultural, medicinal, political and spiritual significance for the Mapuche people, one of the indigenous people who reside in Chile and Argentina. I lived most of my life in Chile and I had never seen a foye tree until that visit to a botanical garden six thousand miles north from our homeland. This encounter left a deep impression and triggered a line of questioning about roots, trade, indigeneity, colonial networks, knowledge, and my process of identity formation.
Works that are part of the four movements of Lof in Transit.
Link to Essay: First Movement, Spiral Time and Transformation
Embodied Resistance Series: Kiñe, Epu, Küla, Meli (2021-2022), foye branches collected at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, archival inkjet print, 30” x 20”
Untitled (2022), Illustration of the Parliament of Quillín (1641) from the book Histórica relación del reyno de Chile, Alonso de Ovalle, cartographer. Printed 1646. Installation at the Fine Arts Gallery, SFSU, San Francisco, California.
