About the Project.
During the colonial period, "bio-pirates" from the European continent fought to disrupt imperial monopolies over natural resources, claiming flora and fauna for their own home countries. Meanwhile, Indigenous and Black women would inflict abortions upon themselves using a particular native plant, the peacock flower, to avoid bringing children into the world that was the European colonies. Originally inspired by first-person accounts of these anecdotes, this project reimagines an actual bio-pirate’s quest for the cochineal beetle, a Mexican-native and Spanish-monopolized insect deeply valued for its crimson dye.
In my original conceit, this French botanist, Nicolas Joseph Thierry de Menonville, encounters a pregnant Mixtec woman, Zyanya Maria Guerrero, who has the same waypoint as him. Both fugitives of sorts, the two team up to travel from Veracruz to Oaxaca, learning about each other’s relationships with the Earth – one passionate but commercial and the other deeply spiritual – along the way. It's a story about colonialism, environmentalism, identity and betrayal.
Through writing the first act, I reflected on my concern that I don't have what it takes to write this story on my own. Though in doing so I’m able to present my perspective on identity, colonialism, and its consequences, I believe this particular endeavor necessitates collaboration; specifically, the input of the identities whom I seek to represent.
I transitioned away from the screenplay, instead suggesting it as a starting point for a more community-oriented creative process. Meanwhile, I’ve dedicated my efforts to consolidating my research and creative underpinnings into an interactive online experience that explores the world of late-colonial Mexico, the story I’ve imagined within it, and the present-day reverberations of such a story.
Elizabeth Fox (they/she) is a Bay Area-based artist-scholar particularly fascinated by the intersection between art and science. They are a recent graduate of Stanford University, where they began this project in completion of Stanford's Arts Institute's interdisciplinary Honors in the Arts program.
In my original conceit, this French botanist, Nicolas Joseph Thierry de Menonville, encounters a pregnant Mixtec woman, Zyanya Maria Guerrero, who has the same waypoint as him. Both fugitives of sorts, the two team up to travel from Veracruz to Oaxaca, learning about each other’s relationships with the Earth – one passionate but commercial and the other deeply spiritual – along the way. It's a story about colonialism, environmentalism, identity and betrayal.
Through writing the first act, I reflected on my concern that I don't have what it takes to write this story on my own. Though in doing so I’m able to present my perspective on identity, colonialism, and its consequences, I believe this particular endeavor necessitates collaboration; specifically, the input of the identities whom I seek to represent.
I transitioned away from the screenplay, instead suggesting it as a starting point for a more community-oriented creative process. Meanwhile, I’ve dedicated my efforts to consolidating my research and creative underpinnings into an interactive online experience that explores the world of late-colonial Mexico, the story I’ve imagined within it, and the present-day reverberations of such a story.
Elizabeth Fox (they/she) is a Bay Area-based artist-scholar particularly fascinated by the intersection between art and science. They are a recent graduate of Stanford University, where they began this project in completion of Stanford's Arts Institute's interdisciplinary Honors in the Arts program.