During the isolation and unpredictability of the pandemic, the wildness of nature has been a vital connection. Nature offers me a way to tap into my resilience. Disconnection happens too easily. I look for beauty in simple materials and experiences to reconnect, holding things sacred. I have been using a 360 camera to capture images that convey a simultaneous sense of distortion and harmony, beauty, and apparition. The distortion of the image allows me to play with light, image, and color recapturing the lost joy of my childhood. The forest is a relief to walk in, but it is a haunted beauty threatened, along with my children’s survival, by millions of climate change deniers.

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Reclaiming Self in Nature

KIMBERLEE KOYM-MURTEIRA

Spending time in nature allows me to tap into my resilience. In this sacred space, I attune to the allure of shape, light, and sensation. Using a 360 camera, I document this embodiment practice focused on connecting with the environment by capturing images that convey a sense of enclosure and expansion. The resulting photographs serve as acts of healing, yet also exhibit a fragmented and disembodied quality. In an effort to delve into these intangible states, I utilize these images and processes to convey a simultaneous sense of distortion and harmony, beauty and apparition. In exhibiting this work, I create a series of stills prints on metal or project the moving imagery in installation.

The participants in this project include myself, mothers and members of the queer/non-binary AFAB (Assigned Female at Birth) community. These images capture the experience of integrating oneself with the natural world. Frequently, mothers prioritize the needs of others and may overlook their own self-care. My aim is to reestablish a connection between queers claiming their bodies and nature, free from the constraints of patriarchal and heteronormative frameworks. Concealed beneath this altered depiction of the natural world also lies my profound apprehension for the wellbeing of our environment.

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