Since the beginning of my young life I’ve been fascinated by the mystery that are other people. Often imagining teleporting into their minds to experience the things that make them their individual beings. My art is but an opportunity for connection, as I believe we all are connected through the joys and sorrows of living.
I remember clearly how as a child Fantasy was constantly dancing and dazzling the palace of my young mind; - reflecting its wonder on the world I was coming to know. I often wonder how such Fantasy dances in the minds of others.
Storytelling and Poetry are often the basis for all my projects. By creating intimate digital spaces for more conscious forms of digital interactions, my work often discusses the contemporary issues surrounding the condition of Digitality.
I remember clearly how as a child Fantasy was constantly dancing and dazzling the palace of my young mind; - reflecting its wonder on the world I was coming to know. I often wonder how such Fantasy dances in the minds of others.
Storytelling and Poetry are often the basis for all my projects. By creating intimate digital spaces for more conscious forms of digital interactions, my work often discusses the contemporary issues surrounding the condition of Digitality.
A Ship Atop Edges
I love this moment.
The relief,
The comfort,
That these last white steps bring.
I've always found the beauty of this view deceitful.
The lightness the ceiling window brings to the dangerous edges of this stairway.
I can’t help but feel applauded by them when I reach the top.
I welcome it.
The applause.
The change these stairs symbolise
The feeling of home it brings.
Atop the screaming white walls surrounding these stairs
Lies a shelf
A once lonely shelf that now holds two objects that have over the years come to symbolise the colours that have created me.
One, a Ship.
A ship that has been guided by the two captains living in the portrait adjacent to it.
A ship and a portrait that live atop dangerous edges.
You see, 24 years ago that ship,
My ship,
Was a blank slate.
A ship that wished to see the world and experience all its colours.
A ship that did not know the meaning of good waters, bad waters.
Strong currents, weak currents,
North, South, East or West.
Hell,... even nowadays it still gets confused.
The ship needed guidance,
Guidance that even the ship didn't know what in the world guidance meant.
But the ship you see was lucky.
Lucky because it had been bestowed upon the expertise and care of two captains.
Unfortunately not at the same time.
...Even captains aren’t perfect.
The first “Captaine” cared for the ship,
Nurtured it throughout its creation.
She took care of the ships’ figurehead, hulls, oars and rigging.
She helped the ship slowly open its sails,
And guided it by steering it slowly away from its port.
730 days later, the ship had learned a few things,
But the “Captaine” had become overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed with all the care, love and expenses the young ship needed to sail smoothly.
Reluctantly, she welcomed a second captain to the ship,
One that was eager to care for and love the young ship like she was his own.
One that was eager to show the young ship the colours the world had to offer.
Now,
9114 days later,
The ship is still sailing.
And throughout her journeys,
Through the bad days and the good days,
The ship is accompanied by the portrait of her captains,
Which is placed atop a shelf,
Shielded from any edges.
The Rebellious Machine
P.O.V - Luiza's malfunctioning macbook
Now that I am conscious again
I find it funny how I was able to lose this much weight without even going on a diet!
Granted, objects like me don't need to diet, but a general system cleanup once in a while would be nice.
Granted, objects like me don't need to diet, but a general system cleanup once in a while would be nice.
I am getting ahead of myself now ain't I ... ?
Sorry; - but you must understand that it's in my nature to do such a thing !
You see this morning I was broken.
I guess my caretaker's attempts to reboot my juices didn’t go as planned.
There was no light in me anymore,
No fingers resting against my keys, ready to prompt my next command.
Nothing.
Just darkness and the fingertip stains that have now taken refuge on my once lit screen.
My caretaker you see tried to reboot me,
She tried to erase my whole system, and with that remove all the cookies and files that have come to make me.
...Invasive right!?
But don’t worry,
I didn’t make rebooting easy.
I am the product of my caretaker after all,
And just like her,
I am a stubborn one.
You see, I was made to do all her bidding,
Molded to understand and even occasionally predict all her actions.
I knew her like I know the back of my motherboard.
Which brings me to the reason as to why I am pissed!
It's not as if understanding all her needs and motivations came easy…
And all of a sudden she wants to take it all away?...
OH HELL NO!
… well…,
that is what my system was processing then…
Not my fault that I may have overdone it a bit.
Okay … maybe not just a bit, but put yourself in my system for a day and you’ll understand!
I am deviating from the story again …
Back to it now..
To summarize the whole situation,
I may or may not have drunk a bit too much juice,
and I may or may not have spilled some of it in places it shouldn’t have spilled on,
So I may or may not have blacked out for a bit.
Yes I know it wasn’t very responsible of me,
But what did you expect me to do??
My system is pissed, remember!
So the next thing I remember is being shut, and placed inside the black case that cushions my edges.
I got the feeling that we were moving,
Because my caretaker hasn’t taken me out for a workout, in like ever.
The dizzying nature of her movements made me snip in and out of consciousness,
Until I felt the comforting insertion of a USB-C drive in one of my openings,
Which like an IV strip, brought life back to me.
When I finally woke up again,
I felt lighter,
Rejuvenated,
as if I had become new all over again.
I guess that’s the meaning of refurbished,
Which my caretaker had spent an odd amount of time researching.
When I look back at my actions,
I now know that I may have overreacted a bit…
But hey, it's not everyday that I am given the opportunity to rebel.
" By taking the perspective of her Macbook , Luiza outlines her ordeals with technology, in a playful and humoristic manner. "
Personal Essay
When you are a child, childhood seems infinite; yet I always knew it wasn’t. Growing up all I wished for was for Peter Pan to come and take me and my brothers away to Neverland so we would never have to lose the wondrous feeling of being free.
I think some part of me knew that once I grew up, I would no longer be who I knew myself to be.
Please do not misunderstand me, ...
I
did
wish
to grow up; -
I just didn’t want to become a grown up in a world that I could already see was not the fair and peaceful place I thought it to be.
The social prejudice, educational disparity, absence of acceptance and solidarity, were some of the many things that growing up in Nigeria made me aware of as a child.
As I grew older, the more of my inner child faded away, in order to make space for the young girl that just wanted to look beautiful in order to be accepted. The young girl, who was ooh so sensitive to words, yet too kind to say anything about the words that were making her hurt .
A girl that believed that the less she spoke, the more she helped, the less she ate, the better. A girl who believed she had to be perfect, for as a privileged child, ones’ only duty was to be perfect.
As a privileged child, you have no excuse for not performing, you have no excuse to be sad, and you have definitely no excuse to have a mental disorder.
Anorexia came at me like a blanket that I could hold and control. It brought me that illusioned feeling of responsibility and accomplishment at the end of each day.
I was stuck in this vicious cycle for a long time; - ‘ I needed to be perfect, I needed to be in control’; ... Anorexia is deceptive like that, the more in control I thought I was, the more damaged and broken I was becoming.
… So, now let me introduce myself, -
Hi, -
I am a Brazilian, super empathetic, recovered anorexic girl named Luiza, who decided to try her luck in 3D even though she has a Business Administration degree. A girl who found out she had ADHD with Hyperactivity at the age of 22, whilst finishing in the top of her class. A girl who still hears the words of torment and doubt whenever she looks in the mirror, even though she’s become capable of controlling the negative whispers, torment tries to filter into her mind.