MI ABUELO Y YO (THE ONLY IMAGE), 2019
Mi Abuelo Y Yo (The Only Image) is a performance-for-video in which I project the one photograph I have of my maternal grandfather onto my face. Having passed away when my mother was nine, I never had the opportunity to meet him. Due to tragic events, my mother had lost all of her personal belongings and family photographs after having already moved to the states, and this image is the only one that has survived. Because of familial disconnection following my gender transition, I do not have contact with the majority of my family on her side. In this performance, I look for genetic similarities using technology and a broken mirror. I question bloodlines, ancestral relationships, and challenge the very idea of ‘disconnection’ from those we are eternally and inherently connected to.