Exercises In Repetition

“Important Safety Instruction” (Fig 3) where three generations of women recite the same safety instructions. Only their mouths are in view which discloses the age differences and creates a weirdly sensual effect. By slightly sexuallizing the actors I am creating an unconscious feeling of uneasiness as we listen to our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters deliver the same instructions but with a clear difference in understanding born from a lifetime of experience.

Using my Grandmother's thread I sew my body into paper and then print it using photo lithography technique. 2022

“Please”. The drawing of the words, “Please I don’t want to do this anymore” with nothing but the hum of the room, the increasingly intense scratching of the pencil against the paper and a beating thud that crescendos to a climactic point and leaves us out of breath begs us to make it stop and yet, loops to repeat it again and again. This illustration of repetitious violation calls us to understand that such acts are common, often quiet, in a familiar space and quick. 2021

Sala Diaz exhibition 2024 In“Exercises In Repetition”, I have printed the minimalist line drawing of the sensitive parts of my body that have unwanted hair by only drawing the hair. That repetitive ritual of razoring the stubble from my armpits, my bikini line and my chin eradicates the unwanted parts of me and reminds me that my value is only placed upon the concept of what is “wanted.”

Comforted in my daily rituals or habits even though expectations of my worth by others is often all people see. My purpose that I deal with as I get older, as I am compared to others who are held in a higher esteem, and as I continue in my ritualistic dance to prove my worth.

Daily bodily rituals do not define me.

Spellerberg Project installation, Lockhart, Texas, 2024

Yard sign in a organ donor ice chest

My hope that this can be a reminder to all of us as to why it is so important that women have the right to choose for themselves, at least until the day when men stop raping us. 2017

“Important Safety Instructions” sticker, white lettering on a red background. The letters are almost too small to read and yet the title jumps at you as you walk by the lone square on a white column. Many just take the title and walk on while a few will stop to try to read what the actual instructions are. This is to say that there is something here to pay attention to, the awareness of surroundings and the checklist of safety instructions that as a white woman I have been conditioned to follow.