KROPP / BODY / CUERPO
2022 - ongoing
2022 - ongoing
KROPP / BODY / CUERPO is a primarily photographic series of site-specific land art. Inspired by Ana Mendieta’s ‘siluetas’ series, I began creating my own silhouettes using the natural materials found in Kjerringøy, where my grandfather was born. I am the fourth generation of Tverbakk’s on that land (called Tverrbakkan) and have spent time there each year since birth; I am deeply connected to the landscape. The mountains, waters, and trees have all grown and changed alongside me, and have also witnessed my transformation over time. By creating these human-shaped silhouettes, I explore how my human body, and the body in general, is in relationship to the land.
This series of photographs makes visible our ephemerality and insists that we humans see ourselves in the landscape. To save our only home and its resources, we must see ourselves as part of the land, and the land as part of us.
The silhouettes are roughly the size of my body and are portraits of the landscape. I use seashells, algae, branches, stones, and soil that reside there to arrange the easily recognizable form of the human body. I began this work in 2023 and when I returned in 2024, I traveled back to these sites to photograph the silhouettes in their return to the earth. This series is ongoing.
EQUILIBRIA is a solo performance written and performed by ESO MALFLOR,
directed by Marcela Michelle, and produced by Lightning Rod for Q-Stage 2023. Live violins by Arlo Sombor and Creeping Charlie. Set design by ESO MALFLOR.
11.11.2023
Red Eye Theater
Minneapolis, MN
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THE EARTH IS A BODY
/ IN TRANSITION /
WATER, AIR, HEAT, SOIL
/ A CORPOREAL ENTITY OF MANY ELEMENTS / FUNCTION IN COLLABORATION /
TO SUSTAIN LIFE.
THE BODY IS AN EARTH
/ IN TRANSITION /
ORGANS, WATER, BLOOD, BONES, TISSUE, MUSCLES / IN CONSTANT SEARCH OF EQUILIBRIUM /
TO SUSTAIN LIFE.
A BODY IS NOT NEUTRAL
/ A BODY IS IN CONSTANT EXPERIENCE /
A BODY KNOWS
EVEN WHEN THE BRAIN DOES NOT.
A BODY IS A VESSEL THAT HOLDS
/ MEMORY / STRESS / ANTICIPATION / TRAUMA / LOVE /
ELONGATED SHIFTS /
DE LA TIERRA EMERJO Y A LA TIERRA VUELVO / FRA JORDEN DUNKER JEG OPP OG TIL JORDEN KOMMER JEG TILBAKE.
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EQUILIBRIA is a one-person performance in which the artist wears “blinding” contacts while traversing a clay landscape on the stage. Two violinists sit at the far corners facing away from each other and perform a 15 second phrase on loop; as one stops, the other begins. From a clay mound the artist emerges, in search of stable ground. The music stops and voice-over audio of short clips of prose in Spanish, English, and Norwegian, are scattered throughout the soundscape in between violins, droplets of water, and gasps of breath. MALFLOR makes their way, on all fours, towards a clay pedestal framed by two column-like vessels, with a bowl of water in front. The artist covers themself with clay as much as possible, first starting at the feet to solidify their place, and slowly moving their way up the body. Their movement comes to a stop and for 30 minutes, they stand still, allowing the clay to dry. Slowly, they break their stillness and begin breaking out of the dried earth. They stumble onto the landscape, all the while still searching with the eyes, head, and hands. They make their way back to the clay mound, disintegrating as they travel. The performance ends in a black out and the artist remains in the mound until the audience has exited.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Executive Artistic Director: Marcela Michelle
Artistic Co-Director: Keila Anali Saucedo
Stage Manager: Connor Berkompas
Assistant Stage Manager: Simone Bernadette Williams
Lighting Designer: VON
Sound Designer: Eric Gonzalez
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Q-STAGE is a Twin Cities queer performance mainstay that has supported and showcased exciting new work from queer artists living and working here on Mni Sota Makoce since 2013. This year’s cohort was selected by Executive Artistics Director and former Q-Stage fellow Marcela Michelle, and features new work from Johanna Keller Flores, Atim Opoka, and MALFLOR.
Lightning Rod is a QTPOC-led arts organism dedicated to the Legacy, Development, and Opportunities of Queer, Trans, and Gender Non-Conforming artists and activists creating culture in the Twin Cities.
directed by Marcela Michelle, and produced by Lightning Rod for Q-Stage 2023. Live violins by Arlo Sombor and Creeping Charlie. Set design by ESO MALFLOR.
11.11.2023
Red Eye Theater
Minneapolis, MN
-
THE EARTH IS A BODY
/ IN TRANSITION /
WATER, AIR, HEAT, SOIL
/ A CORPOREAL ENTITY OF MANY ELEMENTS / FUNCTION IN COLLABORATION /
TO SUSTAIN LIFE.
THE BODY IS AN EARTH
/ IN TRANSITION /
ORGANS, WATER, BLOOD, BONES, TISSUE, MUSCLES / IN CONSTANT SEARCH OF EQUILIBRIUM /
TO SUSTAIN LIFE.
A BODY IS NOT NEUTRAL
/ A BODY IS IN CONSTANT EXPERIENCE /
A BODY KNOWS
EVEN WHEN THE BRAIN DOES NOT.
A BODY IS A VESSEL THAT HOLDS
/ MEMORY / STRESS / ANTICIPATION / TRAUMA / LOVE /
ELONGATED SHIFTS /
DE LA TIERRA EMERJO Y A LA TIERRA VUELVO / FRA JORDEN DUNKER JEG OPP OG TIL JORDEN KOMMER JEG TILBAKE.
-
EQUILIBRIA is a one-person performance in which the artist wears “blinding” contacts while traversing a clay landscape on the stage. Two violinists sit at the far corners facing away from each other and perform a 15 second phrase on loop; as one stops, the other begins. From a clay mound the artist emerges, in search of stable ground. The music stops and voice-over audio of short clips of prose in Spanish, English, and Norwegian, are scattered throughout the soundscape in between violins, droplets of water, and gasps of breath. MALFLOR makes their way, on all fours, towards a clay pedestal framed by two column-like vessels, with a bowl of water in front. The artist covers themself with clay as much as possible, first starting at the feet to solidify their place, and slowly moving their way up the body. Their movement comes to a stop and for 30 minutes, they stand still, allowing the clay to dry. Slowly, they break their stillness and begin breaking out of the dried earth. They stumble onto the landscape, all the while still searching with the eyes, head, and hands. They make their way back to the clay mound, disintegrating as they travel. The performance ends in a black out and the artist remains in the mound until the audience has exited.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Executive Artistic Director: Marcela Michelle
Artistic Co-Director: Keila Anali Saucedo
Stage Manager: Connor Berkompas
Assistant Stage Manager: Simone Bernadette Williams
Lighting Designer: VON
Sound Designer: Eric Gonzalez
-
Q-STAGE is a Twin Cities queer performance mainstay that has supported and showcased exciting new work from queer artists living and working here on Mni Sota Makoce since 2013. This year’s cohort was selected by Executive Artistics Director and former Q-Stage fellow Marcela Michelle, and features new work from Johanna Keller Flores, Atim Opoka, and MALFLOR.
Lightning Rod is a QTPOC-led arts organism dedicated to the Legacy, Development, and Opportunities of Queer, Trans, and Gender Non-Conforming artists and activists creating culture in the Twin Cities.
Photos by Nouf Saleh
Swell is a series of portraits of trans-masc individuals, printed in the subject’s own serous fluid, collected while in recovery from gender affirming top surgery.
Serous fluid is within all of us, lining the spaces in between our internal organs. Upon experiencing a physical trauma, this fluid swells up to protect the body. The long process of undergoing gender affirming surgery - from researching surgeons to initial consultations to recovery - is deeply entrenched in mutual aid among trans people. We care for one another, discuss our experiences within the medical industrial complex, feed each other, change each other’s bandages, measure the fluid draining out of our wounds. It is through transition that we find ourselves and each other.
This series is ongoing.
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ESO MALFLOR is a fiscal year 2024 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Serous fluid is within all of us, lining the spaces in between our internal organs. Upon experiencing a physical trauma, this fluid swells up to protect the body. The long process of undergoing gender affirming surgery - from researching surgeons to initial consultations to recovery - is deeply entrenched in mutual aid among trans people. We care for one another, discuss our experiences within the medical industrial complex, feed each other, change each other’s bandages, measure the fluid draining out of our wounds. It is through transition that we find ourselves and each other.
This series is ongoing.
-
ESO MALFLOR is a fiscal year 2024 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Our inability to see the land as an intrinsic part of us and vice versa contributes to our violent divisions; racism, transphobia, and war, among others. The land is a living, breathing entity we are in a deeply symbiotic, oftentimes parasitic, relationship with.
In The Earth is a Body in Transition, I create material, ritual, and visual parallels between the human body and the earth body through a trans- lens; transsexual, transformative, transitional, trans-national, and transitory. The drawings, photographs, sculptures, and installations in this exhibition explore various acts of transformation occurring throughout nature: prescribed burns, species mimicry, hybridization, transsexualism, community uprisings, and the movement of tectonic plates within the earth’s crust.
The exhibition begins with the Controlled Burn series; in this work, I consider the history of controlled, or prescribed, burns. I recontextualize this practice as a metaphor for seemingly harmful acts that, in reality, enable a particular ecosystem to thrive while preventing much larger catastrophes in the future. In the back room, two sculptures from the Amalgamations series sit within an immersive drawing installation. Downstairs, a second installation situates the overlaid imagery within the topographical map of the valley in Northern Norway where my paternal grandfather was born. This is the landscape I have the longest and deepest relationship with so here, I investigate the edges between my body and this land I share a name with. The work demonstrates how I and my ancestral lands meld, and how, ultimately, to be human is to be of nature - in all of its queerness and complexity.
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The Earth is a Body in Transition
10.12.24 - 11.10.24
HAIR+NAILS Gallery, Minneapolis MN
In The Earth is a Body in Transition, I create material, ritual, and visual parallels between the human body and the earth body through a trans- lens; transsexual, transformative, transitional, trans-national, and transitory. The drawings, photographs, sculptures, and installations in this exhibition explore various acts of transformation occurring throughout nature: prescribed burns, species mimicry, hybridization, transsexualism, community uprisings, and the movement of tectonic plates within the earth’s crust.
The exhibition begins with the Controlled Burn series; in this work, I consider the history of controlled, or prescribed, burns. I recontextualize this practice as a metaphor for seemingly harmful acts that, in reality, enable a particular ecosystem to thrive while preventing much larger catastrophes in the future. In the back room, two sculptures from the Amalgamations series sit within an immersive drawing installation. Downstairs, a second installation situates the overlaid imagery within the topographical map of the valley in Northern Norway where my paternal grandfather was born. This is the landscape I have the longest and deepest relationship with so here, I investigate the edges between my body and this land I share a name with. The work demonstrates how I and my ancestral lands meld, and how, ultimately, to be human is to be of nature - in all of its queerness and complexity.
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The Earth is a Body in Transition
10.12.24 - 11.10.24
HAIR+NAILS Gallery, Minneapolis MN
Sites of Exhaust:
ESO MALFLOR + NANCY JULIA HICKS
08.2023 - 09.2023
SOIL Art Gallery
Seattle, WA
In this second iteration of Sites of Exhaust, artists ESO MALFLOR and Nancy Julia Hicks present sculptures, videos, and printmaking-based works to investigate the parallels between the environment, human-made structures, and gender non-conforming bodies.
Sites of Exhaust:
ESO MALFLOR + Nancy Julia Hicks
02.2023 - 03.2023
Regis Center for Art
Minneapolis, MN
The Department of Art at the University of Minnesota presents Sites of Exhaust, the Regis Center for Art (RCA) Emerging Artist Program exhibition featuring the work of ESO MALFLOR and Nancy Julia Hicks. These artists unite their individual practices encompassing sculpture, installation, and printmaking to investigate the parallels between the environment, built structures, and trans bodies.
ESO MALFLOR + Nancy Julia Hicks
02.2023 - 03.2023
Regis Center for Art
Minneapolis, MN
The Department of Art at the University of Minnesota presents Sites of Exhaust, the Regis Center for Art (RCA) Emerging Artist Program exhibition featuring the work of ESO MALFLOR and Nancy Julia Hicks. These artists unite their individual practices encompassing sculpture, installation, and printmaking to investigate the parallels between the environment, built structures, and trans bodies.
In Tending To
2021
The pH Gallery
West Fork, AR
2021
The pH Gallery
West Fork, AR
THE HUMAN SCALE
2021
ROCHESTER ART CENTER
ROCHESTER MN
2021
ROCHESTER ART CENTER
ROCHESTER MN
Works shown: MADRE DE TODOS, 2021
"What does it mean to be human? Individually and collectively, where are we headed and on what paths have we traveled to arrive at this moment? Each of the artists presented here approaches these foundational questions from unique perspectives, using an array of methods, with answers that often take the form of more questions. The Human Scale uses art to tell a story of the human being that embraces all of our contradictions, ambiguities and eccentricities. The most direct way to consider our “scale” is our size, but we can also look at scale from the perspective of time, or our lifespans, or the way we function as a singular organism, or as a group. The Human Scale also explores the different ways in which artists depict the human form, or less tangible aspects of ourselves such as consciousness or emotion. This exhibition is firmly rooted in our present moment, and, taken as a whole, offers one possible version of where and what we are right now."
This project was supported, in part,
by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
"What does it mean to be human? Individually and collectively, where are we headed and on what paths have we traveled to arrive at this moment? Each of the artists presented here approaches these foundational questions from unique perspectives, using an array of methods, with answers that often take the form of more questions. The Human Scale uses art to tell a story of the human being that embraces all of our contradictions, ambiguities and eccentricities. The most direct way to consider our “scale” is our size, but we can also look at scale from the perspective of time, or our lifespans, or the way we function as a singular organism, or as a group. The Human Scale also explores the different ways in which artists depict the human form, or less tangible aspects of ourselves such as consciousness or emotion. This exhibition is firmly rooted in our present moment, and, taken as a whole, offers one possible version of where and what we are right now."
This project was supported, in part,
by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.