This was a 10 hour performance where I moved in and out of the shallow water of Jamaica Bay, collecting any objects I could find, such as shells, rocks, seaweed, plastic, glass, rubber, etc. One by one, I placed each piece down on the shore in a circular configuration. Piece by piece, from inside out, I built a mandala. It was not a mandala one may be used to seeing, but it is one that reflects the world we have created for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters. A world where the purity of nature has become intertwined with the mostly disconnected creations of the human mind. 

In the traditional creation of a mandala, at the end, all the sand is brought together and thus the piece is destroyed, symbolizing the impermanent nature of all that is. That sand is then brought to a body of water and given back into the Earth, into the water where she originated from. In the second half of this performance, I repeatedly took each natural object back into the water, returning them to their source, and leaving behind the trash, which I later discarded.

Being connected and synchronized with the rhythms of nature is essential for all life on Earth; human, animal, plant, and mineral. It means we are connected with ourselves. We are one with all of nature, one with all that is, so that oneness is our true home. However, humans have disconnected themselves with that oneness, and therefore disconnected themselves with their own heart. We have now become a predominantly mind-oriented civilization, even in some of our most seemingly genuine pursuits. But that is not who we truly are. With time, the human world has collectively lost touch with the tides, the sun, the winds, the water, and most importantly, with the self. I wish to be of service to the land and the waters and the air, and provide a reflection into how humans treat our beautiful Earth, and to acknowledge the material objects that end up in her. It serves as an invitation to return to our innate nature that is one with everything else.

For this project, with gratitude, I received support from New York Foundation for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Media and Entertainment, and Queens Theatre.