Lunar Tides and the Spirals of the Universe (2023)

acrylic and oil pastel on cotton canvas, plexiglass sheets, alluminum sheets, shells, banana leaves, unfired clay altar pieces.

600 x 160 cm

“Lunar Tides and the Spirals of the Universe” is a food installation and performance-dinner; a ritual exploring the separation of food from the realm of the commons, to its positioning as commodity mediated through spectacle and performance under capitalist and colonial systems. Looking at spiritual practices meant to invoke both forces of change as desire, extinction, fertility and death, this edible artwork explores the ongoing historical pathways of an ancient spice, medicine, and aphrodisiac called silphium — a plant overharvested to extinction during the Roman Empire, triggering waves of destruction and chaos that echo through time and space. The work explores the communion practices of the Cult of Sylphis — an imaginary ancient religious practice revolving around the planting, tending, growth, protection, sharing, and consumption of silphium in Antiquity — to discuss changing forms of worship and spiritual practices in the context of climate disaster.

This work is part of the Un/Earthings and Moon Landings series. You can read the short fiction story “A Few Notes on the Cult of Sylphis” on Ding Magazine.

This work was performed during the summer of 2023 at The Institute for Endotic Research and at Spore Initiative.

Photos 3-6: Lorenzo Sandoval