PALOMA AYALA

ARCHIVE (2015-2018)

of PREVIOUS PROJECTS

RIVER ORACLE is a cyanotype series printed in the Rhein river basin, in which diverse narratives of care in rural land, in riverine ecology and industry, are told through a feminist speculative approach.

This project is meant to be a tool to situate ourselves as humans in our relationship with water bodies. As methodology of thought, the RIVER ORACLE is a way to develop artistic work in a situated practice that emphasizes our connections to the more-than-human. As research, the project connects to feminist speculative practices: the oracle becomes mediator and facilitator of communication between diverse feminist discourses of Earth care, of interdependencies, of anti-colonial thinking, and the river. Ultimately, we want to focus on how significant and necessary it is to shift our anthropocentric thinking in order to develop different relationships with planetary beings.

• July-Aug 2022: RIVER ORACLE is part of the exhibition Zones of Love, Playbour & Kinship, curated by Lucy Tuma. Shedhalle, Zurich

• Apr-May 2022: part of the exhibition Underland: Emotions are Oceans. Curated by Niekolaas Lekkerkerk and Sergi Rusca. RADIUS Center for Contemporary Art and Ecology, Delft

• May 2021: Exhibition ‘Humans as Watery Beings’ curated by Christine Liske, Flussbad, Berlin.

• March- April 2021: website part of the exhibition Intimacy of Strangers by Riikka Tauriainen, curated by Lena Pfäffli, Sabrina Negroni and Anne-Sophie Mlamali. SIC! Elephanthouse, Luzern

• July- Sept 2021: research artist encounter Siluetas de Papa, Hierba y Fuego, in preparation for the Hochrhein Triennale, Kaiserstuhl/Hohentengen

cyanotype series, oracle cards, sound installation and website

In collaboration with Anne-Laure Franchette and Riikka Tauriainen, with sound artists Melody Chua and Kay Zhang.

As water, we all owe ourselves to other bodies of water. As water, we all eventually pass our waters on. Even while in constant motion, water is also a planetary archive of meaning and matter. To drink a glass of water is to ingest the ghosts of bodies that haunt that water. - Astrida Neimanis

printing location: Kaiserstuhl/Hohentengen photos: Andrea Herrera Poblete