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Frame Rate: Jen DeNike

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Some behind the scenes of the making of #inthebell

Some behind the scenes of the making of #inthebellyoftheserpent by @priestusssy - it took a team of assistants, fabricators, volunteers and supporters to bring the Serpent to life. Thank you to everyone that participated in its making.

We hope you will join us tonight from 5-7 for an opening ceremony with @irkamateo @sacredtainohealing

In the Belly of the Serpent is located in the center of @lastatehistoricpark closest to the Spring and Sotello entrance

We are honored to be joined tomorrow by Irka Mateo

We are honored to be joined tomorrow by Irka Mateo, @irkamateo for an opening ceremony of In the Belly of the Beast by Star Feliz, @priestusssy.

Opening Ceremony
Thursday, September 14
5-7PM
@lastatehistoricpark

Join us for an opening ceremony led by Irka Mateo — a Dominican Taíno ceremonialist and spiritual healer — to activate the healing energy of the serpent spirit on the land.

Irka Mateo was born in the Dominican Republic. Throughout her life, Irka has expressed herself through singing, songwriting, documenting, and learning ceremonial music and the syncretic spirituality from rural Dominican areas. In New York City Irka worked at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian for ten years as an educator, creating and implementing programs for children, conducting educational lectures, and producing and starring in musical performances. Currently, she lives in Los Angeles, California, and supports the Sacred Taino Healing community, which she founded in 2019, through ceremonies and spiritual healing. Irka is also studying Indigenous pottery and producing Taíno-inspired ceramics while continuing to share four decades of direct Taino research in the Dominican countryside through music, courses, in-person and online gatherings, educational short films, art, and storytelling, affectionately known as Los Cuentos de Akutu. Learn more at https://sacredtainohealing.com/

📸 @isabelavila.photo

LAND presents In the Belly of the Serpent by Star

LAND presents
In the Belly of the Serpent
by Star Feliz @priestusssy

Opening Ceremony with Irka Mateo
Thursday, September 14 - December 8, 2023
5-7PM

@lastatehistoricpark
1245 N Spring Street
LA, CA 90012

Join us this Thursday, September 14 for an opening ceremony led by @irkamateo — a Dominican Taíno ceremonialist and spiritual healer — to activate the healing energy of the serpent spirit on the land.

In the Belly of the Serpent invites us to collectively envision the abolishment of global systems of exploitation. In the Taino culture (indigenous Caribbean), The Great Mother, or the creator of life, is often represented as a serpent. Here her belly is blocked: our world struggles because of an insatiable extraction of natural resources and human labor. By incorporating this form, and connecting it to the rehabilitating power of earth and water, Feliz aims to create a sacred space to reflect on the possibilities of the future, and then dream them into reality. Built and painted by hand, the creation of the earth mound utilizes the same water which once flowed through the historic Zanja Madre beneath the park, as well as Afro-Arawak power plants and mystic symbols. For Feliz, building with materials from the surrounding environment is root medicine for connection, belonging, and remembrance for diasporic populations. The serpent emerges as an activated force of rebirth once more.

In the Belly of the Serpent is supported by the Mohn LAND Grant, funded through the generosity of @jarlmohn and Pamela Mohn.

LAND and the artist would like to thank the following individuals for their support in realizing the project: Stephanie Campbell and the staff of LA State Historic Park; producer Irina Gusin; fabricator Christopher Wawrinofsky; artist assistants Steph Lister, Javi Pineda, and Nin Saucedo; graphic design Jimena Game; and volunteers David Alas, sar artoonian, Blessing Greer, Charles Westcott, Jessa Shwayder Carta, Avery Collins-Byrd, Audrey Harrison, Hannah Taylow, Brielle Brilliant, Luke Godinez, Dani Gonzalez, Ash Hoyle, Lily Null, Camille Kelley, Shabina Toorawa, Darlene Escobedo, Angela Pastor, Wendy Jaime, and Justi Sexton.

Sunset rainbow over the serpent // join us for the

Sunset rainbow over the serpent // join us for the opening of In the Belly of the Serpent by Star Feliz @priestusssy Thursday 5-7 @lastatehistoricpark

If in New York this week, don’t miss @yasmine.di

If in New York this week, don’t miss @yasmine.diaz solo presentation @thearmoryshow with @ochigallery of new works expanding from For Your Eyes Only, a multimedia and video installation that was shown this summer and inspired the exhibition, for the sake of dancing in the street, by LAND and @oxyarts. #LANDpicks

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