Introduction

Photo: Trustees of the British Museum. 

Early last year I received an invitation to do an artist residency at the British Museum in London to engage and respond to the Paraguay collection in the vaults, which will likely never see the light of day. To be more specific, I was invited by the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence in Latin American Research (from here on referred to as SDCELAR), based at the British Museum. The SDCELAR aims to create public engagement with the Latin American collections through artist responses and publications. One of the researchers had seen some of my work about disPOSSESSION in Asunción, which was the starting point for contact. I am very happy that indigenous artists from the Chaco collective will also be part of this project. Since the early invitation, our plans and the timeline have changed several times due to Covid-19. Long story short, rather than travelling to London last fall to see the collection and create art, I'm working from my home in Winnipeg/Canada over a longer period of time to respond to photographs of the objects in the collection and reading materials. While my experience of the collection obviously won't be same as viewing it in situ, I must admit that this current iteration of the project - working from home and having more time - suits me quite well, since I am a new mom and I split my time between the studio and being with little M., who is 13 months now. I will be able to reflect with greater depth on what this collection means in the context of its history and its existence today. Over the next few months, I'll share my thoughts and reflections about my research and creative process here on this blog as a form of project diary.