Double Consciousness Infinity Mirror (Narcissus' Origin of the World)

Double Consciousness Infinity Mirror (Narcissus' Origin of the World) depicts a brown, pregnant figure holding an oval reflection of her swollen belly marked by her hemispheric melanin line called the Linea Negra. Centering the pregnant belly as a biological origin of the world, the work examines the colonial gaze framed by pornographic depictions of fertility in masterworks such as Courbet’s painting of an unidentified vagina. The psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan famously placed Courbet's 1866 painting in his home behind a modesty curtain to both conceal and reveal his predatory narcissism.

The Linea Negra series photographs (2008-present) documents the inception of gender, power and race structures from slogans, slang, maxims and "old wives tales" to internalized, institutional violence. The works celebrate the melanin line appearing during gestation (most prominent in women of color) as a biological pieta; the first biographical mark on the procreative body and the first sign of our creative humanity.