In the fibre of her being
My work, Habla con la Luna/Talks with the moon 2021 is included in a group exhibition "In the fibre of her being" curated by Sarah Rose at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery from 23 October 2021 to 12 February 2022. You can view excerpts and download a copy of the digital zine I created for the work.
| lunazine_pdoprado_102021.pdf |
Habla con la Luna
connections between song, moon and water
I had envisioned making a net. In my mind it alternated in appearance, somewhere between a giant spiderweb and a casting net as it might look in the very moment it was cast, floating and spreading out in the air before it hits the water. Inspired by a version of the cumbia folk song “El Pescador”/The Fisherman, that Toto La Momposina performs, I was drawn to the lyrics, “habla con la luna (talks with the moon)/habla con la playa (speaks with the beach)/no tiene fortuna (has no treasure)/solo su atarraya (just a fishing net)”. Like the cycles of planting and harvesting on land, I thought about the lunar cycles, the catch and the sea.
So many of the folk and modern tales devalue the herstories we know birthed us. This work is a woven song to those herstories. To my motherlines etched in the rivers Congo, Nile, Quaraí, Rio de la Plata, Yaguaron and those whose names I do not know that may have flowed in or out of the Rhine or even the Somme. To the daughters of sharks, who survived because they grew powerful sharp mouths and kept going without looking back. To those that took luck into their own hands to manifest other possibilities for their children’s children. To the weavers, makers, diviners, casters and repairers of nets who came before me and embodied the knowledge that everything is connected. This is a woven song of gratitude to all the Fisherwomen who talk with the moon, custodians of the waterways and the life held within. I sing thanks to the Herring Protectors of Sitka Alaska, the Vezo women of Madagascar, the Mujeres Trabajadoras del Mar of Mexico, the Marisqueiras of Brazil and Barangaroo and the Eora Fisherwomen.
So many of the folk and modern tales devalue the herstories we know birthed us. This work is a woven song to those herstories. To my motherlines etched in the rivers Congo, Nile, Quaraí, Rio de la Plata, Yaguaron and those whose names I do not know that may have flowed in or out of the Rhine or even the Somme. To the daughters of sharks, who survived because they grew powerful sharp mouths and kept going without looking back. To those that took luck into their own hands to manifest other possibilities for their children’s children. To the weavers, makers, diviners, casters and repairers of nets who came before me and embodied the knowledge that everything is connected. This is a woven song of gratitude to all the Fisherwomen who talk with the moon, custodians of the waterways and the life held within. I sing thanks to the Herring Protectors of Sitka Alaska, the Vezo women of Madagascar, the Mujeres Trabajadoras del Mar of Mexico, the Marisqueiras of Brazil and Barangaroo and the Eora Fisherwomen.
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