ELEMENTAL HAPPENINGS

Unearthed Histories: Elemental Performance as Ancestral Archive

This project explores “Elemental Happenings,” a series of nature-based performances that position materiality as both an archive of memory and a medium for engaging with the elemental. The work interrogates the latent histories embedded in natural substances, emphasizing how these materials serve as silent custodians of ancestral narratives, fractured by forgotten voices and lives disrupted by historical forces.

Drawing upon the inherent qualities of earth, water, fire, and air, the performances unfold as dynamic encounters between the human body and the elements, revealing the unresolved and unspoken histories that persist in the land and its materials. These performances operate as living archives—fluid, ephemeral moments where the past resurfaces through elemental engagement, creating a dialogue between the present and ancestral memory.

Through this interplay, the performances aim to uncover the deep, often invisible connections between human existence and the material world, suggesting that nature itself holds the capacity to communicate histories that have been silenced, interrupted, or erased. “Elemental Happenings” challenges conventional understandings of both performance and archival practice, positioning nature as an active participant in the ongoing process of historical recollection and transformation.