By
Alexandra Gelis
In collaboration with Cristina Lombana.
Programming: Héctor Centeno, Alexandra Gelis.
Dimensiones: variables
Video and sound installation with photography and interventions with hair.
Hacer y Deshacer: Poems from Within (2020) is an interactive video installation. Most of the video sequences show Gelis’s mother undressing, one strand of yarn at a time, sometimes in Panama’s Casco Viejo (historic district), sometimes in the turbulent waters of the Pacific. Using her mother’s body, she tells the story of a cancer survivor, the story of countless others. Gelis invites us into the healing process: the viewer can change the order of the videos by pulling down reels of threads connected to electronic components concealed in the Priscilla sewing box. In doing so, the artist provides opportunities for healing collectively. She uses interventions in situ, video, super 8 and 16 mm film, threads and sculptural elements made with hair, and photography. As part of this process, she has facilitated artistic workshops at the oncology hospital working with women patients at the Oncology Hospital in Panama City. She is presently creating a feature film version of this work.
Thanks to Alejandro Cadavid my brother who was partner in this healing journey and helped with hidden camera work. Doctors and staff at the Hospital Oncológico de Panamá. To the Fundación del Cáncer Elsy Jiménez de Marrugo with their therapy of microstructured waters for the cure and prevention of cancer, leukemia and HIV. Miladis Torres Daza and Nikol Daniels for her teachings on hair. Michelle Webb for her teachings on spinning threads. Sergio Rojas, Thifany Rogers and Manuel Gómez on supporting cameras. Jorge Lozano for his permanent conceptual and technical support. Friends and family members that were always with us and donated their hair. Mike Hoolboom, Rebecca Garrett, Rosana Lombana, Madi Piller, Lalo Lorza.
Created with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
