Rest in Prowess is a meditation on memory and the fundamentals of neuroscience that bind us all.
In the hit Pixar film Coco, viewers are introduced to Mexican culture’s conception of death: that there are two versions of it. The first death comes when our physical body expires, releasing our soul to live on in the Land of the Dead. The second, permanent death of our soul comes when there is no one still alive who remembers us.
In that vein, Rest in Prowess seeks to keep the memory of powerful women alive.
It transposes oral storytelling onto small grassy fields filled with dozens upon dozens of white neuron-shaped wires. The field represents the cross-section of the hippocampus, the area of the brain neuroscientists believe plays a crucial role in storing memories.
Each wire represents a hippocampal neuron and is linked to a personal memory of an exceptional woman who has since passed. Memories were sourced from participants locally and around the world.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
My grandmother had a stern personality, like a mother wolf watching over her cubs. She grew up in Haiti and didn’t tell us much about her past. There was a big mango tree in her front yard and she would ask her grandchildren to come pick the fruit. Her two favorite things to say were “don’t throw food away” and “come eat”.
