Launched in 2023, Living Altar is a series of collaborations where the brown body transforms into a site of embellished beauty and adornment. This work is a reclaiming of the femme body as a natural organism of the desert ecosystem. In this work, brown flesh becomes a site of self-adoration, a realm of complete belonging, a haven of rest and protection, and even a weapon. Through the application of vestments, cast sculptures created with breastmilk, acrylic and threaded with nopal needles, the donning and alteration of the brown body, turns it into a living altar that offers refuge to the self and becomes a sanctuary of safety and protection to the wearer. This collaborative series situates the femme body in an exploration of Latinx Futurism, reclaiming ancestral knowledge and belonging while envisioning new forms of adaptation and thriving in the borderlands ecosystem. The series launched with a site-specific residency organized by Gabriela Muñoz and Jenea Sanchez of Fronterizx Collective and invited artist Ammi Robles.
