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Séance of Duality is an art series that mixes art and ritual with community building. As a biracial Latinx artist I have found that being categorized as ‘in-between’ is a lonely place to be as those that fall between definitions tend to not be fully accepted by either side, therefore lacking in community. In the series Séance of Duality I conducted private interviews with biracial Latinx people that I have known over the years. In these private interviews we recalled moments of our lives and found the threads of connection between us and slowly wove those connections into a communal story unique to us. We found that we had shared family jokes and ways of being. That because of the break in the traditions of both sides, we made our own, in some cases a blending of our family backgrounds, and others something entirely new. All of us alternative in some way, using our duality to move through life, carving out a space where we fit as there was no space provided. Some of us cried together, we definitely laughed, but no matter what by the end we felt a little less lonely. In turn, I used my lifelong experience of building altars and performing ritual to build altars in collaboration with each person that would summon the very essence of them, summoning a whole person, not a person divided by race and culture. I used objects from the interviewee as well as my own to create an altar that was a clear representation of them.

 

I present the finished altars here for you to view with respect. My sincere hope is that in the end each viewer comes away with a stronger understanding of what it means to be biracial Latinx in America. That being biracial does not mean a person divided, but is instead a combining, a mixture that creates a diverse whole.