This was a 10 hour performance where I moved in and out of the shallow water of Jamaica Bay, collecting any objects I could find, such as shells, rocks, seaweed, plastic, glass, rubber, etc. One by one, I placed each piece down on the shore in a circular configuration. Piece by piece, from inside out, I built a mandala. It was not a mandala one may be used to seeing, but it is one that reflects the world we have created for ourselves and for our brothers, sisters, and children. A world where the purity of nature has become intertwined with the products of the mostly disconnected and individualistic desires of the human mind. 

In the traditional creation of a mandala, once the piece is finished, all the sand is brushed together and thus the mandala is destroyed, symbolizing the impermanent nature of all that is. That sand is then ceremonially brought to a natural body of water and given back into the Earth, into the water from where it originated. 

In the second half of this performance, I repeatedly took each natural object back into the water, returning them to their source, and leaving behind the trash, which I later discarded.

Being connected and synchronized with the rhythms of nature is essential for all life on Earth; human, animal, plant, and mineral. It means we are connected with ourselves. We are one with all of nature, one with all that is, so that oneness is our true home. However, humans have disconnected themselves with that oneness through identification of the mind and the material world, and therefore disconnected themselves with their own heart. We have now become a predominantly mind-oriented civilization, even in some of our most seemingly genuine pursuits. With time, the human world has collectively lost touch with the tides, the sun, the winds, the water, and most importantly, with the self. But that is not who we truly are. We are humans with big hearts and an immense capacity for growth, care, and love. This project serves as an invitation to return to our innate nature that is one with everything else.

For this project, with gratitude, I received support from New York Foundation for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Media and Entertainment, and Queens Theatre.