A Cry for Intimacy

Fall 2023

Cyanotype prints, polaroid photos, poetry on tracing paper, video performance filmed in the Mojave Desert

A Cry for Intimacy is a site specific experimental performance in collaboration with the Mojave desert during an Immersive Arts Field Research trip with UCSC. In the desert, perspective shifts and time and scale gain new meaning. Rolling sand dunes lie nestled between ancient stone giants, and almost every plant is armed with thorns. Upon first meeting, the desert is a hostile place. I asked, what would it mean to arrive with gentleness and attention. Removing my shoes, I carefully exposed my bare skin to the desert floor. The Mojave asks for slowness and care. Relationship building. I stood with the cacti and felt the sun as they feel it—documented with cyanotype paper beneath my feet.

As the sun was setting on the final night, I engaged in a dance with the desert. Slow and deliberate. In a place so harsh on my soft body, I found a way to cultivate the intimacy I crave with the earth. In an age of climate catastrophe, listening to land becomes the language through which we survive.