Welcome back to the blog!

I have been curious about my genealogy for a while now. While the Dominican Republic may not be seen as one of the countries with the largest diaspora, it is known in our history that our ancestors have been placed and displaced in and out, across oceans and cultures.

I am a child of the diaspora, and I am looking for a deeper understanding of how the past and present continue to shape my identity.

I took my genealogy test a year ago or so, and I was amazed yet not surprised. Turns out I carry matches with 16 regions across the world, divided among Europe (48%), Africa (46%), and Indigenous Americas (6%). The story tells itself.

My goal this semester is to engage in research about each of the regions. I will learn about their history, culture, traditions, and pottery art. I plan on making 16(subject to change) vases, one per location. Each one of these will serve as a vessel to tell a story about my ancestry, with both personal and culturally appropriate elements. Through this work, I want to tell the story of who I am and my diaspora.

I am still brainstorming design elements outside of the vase body. Do I focus on sgraffito landscapes specific to these countries, or do I mesh it with my own landscapes, do I bring reliefs of people, as I did in my last project? And how crude do I want to get? We all know colonization wasn’t pretty lol still much to figure out.

Here is a moodboard I started building with this project in mind