Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

SHUCHIKISA (To Bloom)

Rosalina Libertad Cerritos

Shuchikisa (To Bloom) is a commemoration to the spirit of resistance and how this moves through time, history and memory. The title is in Nahuat, an indigenous language in El Salvador, Central America. It is conceived to be a projection mapping moving image installation. Fabric flower petals are suspended in the space and on the background there is a projection of a white blooming flower.  The textile petals are scattered in the space functioning as a metaphor for the scattered reality of diasporas. This fragmentation of the moving image constitutes a visual configuration of digital moving image memory. The petals function as different windows or screens that are an active invitation to the viewer to participate in the act of memory as they observe each different window or screen. Different instances of blue blooming flowers are seen on the petal screens.

A blooming flower is a beautiful image that renders hope and a new life. The spirit of resistance for me is always a pathway to this. These petals are a commemoration to those humans that have marched and lived with this spirit in their hearts. Many have shed their petals and given their lives. Thus as Shuchikisa sheds, the petals transform, morph and distort into something that is no longer relatable to a petal. The act of commemoration holds the value of all of these voices and lives in our present time and in our memory. As the different windows or frames cross different temporal zones of the moving image, the flowers and the petals become a metaphor for how histories and memories are thickly filtered through the passing of time. Whether they are collective or more personal, our capacity to retain the exact experience as memory transforms yet the spirit remains intact. Some memories and histories are difficult to remember and to capture, and even though Shuchikisa is mainly about hope it is also about injustice, indignation and pain. It isacelebration of the expanded spirit that exists in acts of courage, resistance and refusal.

Rosalina Libertad Cerritos

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My artistic research and studio practice explores cultural identity and how this unfolds through memory, history, time, and intergenerational experiences of trauma, celebration, hope, immigration, and collective and personal nostalgia in the context of El Salvador and its diaspora. My Mestiza identity is also at the forefront of my subjectivity in my practice. The complexity of these experiences is expressed through the abstraction and gestural character of my work yet a recognizable language through figure or symbolism still remains so as to facilitate an entry point. As they enter a space where the digital moving image and sound exists in different layers and dimensions, my installations invite viewers to engage with these concepts and ideas in a holistic manner. As a digital moving image artist, my visual discourse is interested in creating an experience that embraces plurality in a multidimensional and multi-sensorial way. With my work, I want to invite us all to reimagine new narratives and new futures by reconstructing and reconnecting to our histories, memories, and past. Rosalina Libertad Cerritos was born in Mexico City - her cultural inheritance and heritage are from El Salvador, Central America - she grew up on the west coast of Canada. She attended the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Concordia University, Montreal, Canada - where she graduated with a film production degree with a focus on experimental cinema. She also has a Digital Visual Effects Diploma - Capilano University, North Vancouver, BC, Canada. She is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC, Canada