I dug back a layer of snow to reveal a little of the flank of mother Etna beneath, over 2000 metres above sea level. Etna is an active volcano in Sicily, standing at over 3,300 metres. The work is about practising intimacy with nature; being held. Sweeping away crusts. Finding warmth in impossible landscapes, yearning ‘skin’, low, silent subterranean breathing. I embed myself in Etna (now cold, but still here) after seeing her in the distance every day and sharing Catania as a home, with her.
Filmed by Alex Gulino
Part of Papaya’s ‘Unregulated Black Intimacy’
‘Papaya is an artist and activist-led Afrofeminist collective investigating Black liberation, and ways to create loving environments in a decolonising world’.
The collective commissioned 10 films by Black feminist artists around the world, with support from the UK city of Culture Trust and the British Council through the International Changemakers Programme.