Anatomy of an Oyster

A story of violence, revision and integration from abuses suffered as a child.

The mother-of-pearl, which will in time become the pearl, begins to form when a foreign element is introduced into the oyster. Anatomy of an Oyster is a journey into the past, a path backwards to revisit places from my childhood that are necessary to understand my present. It traces a story of violence, revision and integration from the abuses I suffered in my family as a child. But, above all, it is an attempt to tell what one feels must be told. A way of telling what could never be revealed to an now absent mother. And, at the same time, a way of telling it to oneself. In this descent into the depths of remoteness, images and texts of the pearl-forming process accompany current and archival photos, as well as short notes, that capture my emotional, bodily and family memory. The pearl, which is nothing more than the autobiography of an oyster, is the result of this search: carried out in order first to find it, then to assimilate it, and finally to remove it.