Fragile Vessels: Our body is a Territory: Healing the Heating Earth
This installation is inspired by ancient murals that are interactive maps of territory. The impact of heat on the human body is mirrored on the way that our territory is affected by heat and the deterioration of the functionating of our organic systems like our circulatory and digestive systems are mirrored in the breakdown of the river systems and loss of tree canopy. The drought is deep as it is wide. Our illnesses and frailty extend to the four
directions. Our map is an interactive chamber that is entered to experience
an immersion in a primordial world that is timeless and alive. We enter a cloister where we become one with our territory. We see a scar of heat across our land. This is us - we are our territory. We are impacted by extreme heat. A transformation of light reveals a process of healing. The spirits of the Earth will care for us in this season of deep heat and fracture. Our message is that we must attend to the spirits so that they may attend to us. Painted on a canvass and given texture with paper, the cylinder can be touched and felt by hand and hearts. There is a loop of music that plays inside the chamber that shifts alongside the change in light. Ancient murals in Texas are thousands of years old - the spirits that guardian these lands are much older. What stories are we leaving for our forebearers? Will we have health of body and society to tell these stories? How can we give back to the spirits of the Earth in thanks for all they give to us?

IMMERSIVE INSTALLATION MADE BY PAOLA WARD AND TANE WARD FOR FRAGIL VESSEL 2026 AT DADALAB