Shadow Boxing

This project activates the archetype of The Warrior. I embarked on this hand-drawn animation as a kind of ritual, paralleling the tedium of drawing each individual cell with the daily battle against the Othering our bodies are subject to, most critically in this historical moment. I was thinking of epigenetics also– how we inherit the bruises of our ancestors in this fight as old as patriarchy and colonialism. Calling upon the archetypal warrior, Ogun, the repeating call in Yoruba, oh Ogun o mogba mogba, is an homage to the resilience of the Africans brought to my homeland of Cuba (and USA) who were able to maintain their faith and persist despite unspeakable cruelties and enslavement. A Lucumi song from my youth, when I was consecrated Iyalocha into the faith. And while I don’t practice the religion anymore, that ashé lives on in me, and I consider myself fortunate to have come to understand the wisdom of those who survived the unthinkable with their souls intact.

Shadow Boxing, 2019 3m26s
single channel hand-drawn animation

Projection/screening at HIGHWALL, Inscape Arts