What pieces or projects have you been working on lately?
Lately, I’ve been starting to work on translations, mainly of poetry and essays, though I hope to soon feel ready to tackle longer formats, like novels. I’ve also been experimenting with projects where my academic research and creative work can find common ground.
What did you learn (or unlearn) while working on them?
I think I’ve rarely approached photography with a specific goal in mind; it has accompanied me over many years—through relocations, relationships, trips, walks, grief, and more. A way to keep a record. It’s a medium through which I’ve learned not to be overly self-demanding, allowing room for chance, play, and error.
What words, ideas or emotions were going through your head?
Closeness, tact, confusion, entanglement. There’s also a word I’ve been thinking about a lot —looming— something about to happen or emerge, a kind of foreboding.
Were there any conversations, movies, music, or books that made their way into that work?
Some of my main influences are writers who work with diaries or with intimacy, such as Anaïs Nin, Alejandra Pizarnik, Annie Ernaux, Anne Carson, Chantal Akerman, Ana Mendieta and Francesca Woodman.
What's been the most difficult thing you've faced recently in your creative process?
I have a bit of “archival disorder” and get distracted easily. I struggle to shape my creative processes. I take many notes, have full folders that are unorganized, accumulate objects, leave things unfinished, jump from one place to another. For me, it's a challenge to be methodical and know where I want to go with an idea.
If your life were a movie this month, what would it be called and who would write the soundtrack?
Altitude sickness, with a soundtrack by Juana Molina.
What is your favorite restaurant and what do you recommend we order?
Any breakfast spot that serves quesadillas de flor de calabaza and café de olla.
Recommend us an artist you follow who inspires you, and tell us what you like most about their work or their way of working.
Their work is very diverse, but I admire the ways they think about their relationship with the body, the landscape, animals, and emotions:
Lina Scheynius, Antonia Alarcon, Mariana Matija, Sara Torres, María Sánchez and Santiago Moyao.
Mexico City, 1993. Her practice spans writing, editing, embroidery, photography, and reading. Her work explores the body as landscape. Currently based in London.