El Trópico Migrado (The Migrated Tropic).

Ongoing research project exploring a range of 490 million-year-old stromalites (layered stone) formed when New York was the bottom of a tropical sea located south of the equator. These stromatolites contain both bacteria and marine fossils and they were the first of its kind found in North America.

In my work I transform materials through actions that mimic geological processes. Particularly matter that is associated with the territory where I grew up, Venezuela, that also exists in NYC either because they were native also to that territory, or because they have been transported there. Avocados, corn, cassava, potatoes, mollusks, algae, etc.

I started this project in 2024 while in residency at Yaddo. There I created paper rubbings of these fossils, as well as photos and videos. My initial purpose in studying these fossils was to further reflect on the perpetual transformations and migrations on Earth, beyond the human perspective.

A departure moment from previous work in which the matter is always present, I am now working from the absence of the matter, exploring instead its imprint, trace, etc.

I am currently organizing material that I will use to create sculptures, installations, and videos exploring the ideas mentioned above (migration, absence, imprint, etc.).