“…she still feels her heart tremble
beneath the new bark,
and embracing those branches
as if they were limbs…”
—Metamorphoses, Publius Ovidius Naso

The Daphnes is a series composed of three works: The Bodies, The Scream, and 70º | 275º, all inspired by the Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo. In Metamorphoses, Ovid recounts how Daphne, daughter of the river and the earth, is relentlessly pursued by Apollo, who refuses to accept her rejection. Desperate, she transforms into a laurel tree.

The works evoke that moment of transformation—skin becoming bark. Dying and being reborn as a tree. Through these pieces, merging the fire arts with elements of nature, I suggest a connection between violence against women and the devastation of the environment.

In all three works, I explore the concept of interdependence as proposed by Judith Butler: “We are not individuals who become social through a contract; we are interdependent from the very beginning, and that interdependence is a constitutive feature of who we are…”