This structure imparts a cosmology of possibilities: how we interact as a communal collection of souls within new sites of meaning and re-imagining new futures rooted in the landscape of Tovaangar (Los Angeles). The movement between time and space creates a continuum of Native existence, highlighting vertical and spiraling pathways of existence throughout time, such as that between the land and sky. By engaging multiplanar sites of meaning, this project aims to break linear understandings of people, knowledge, space and time.

The artist’s practice is an expression of ceremonial intervention in collaboration with her ancestral lands, connecting to ancestral knowledge as a means of reconciliation and reclamation in order to build radically imagined futures.

In this project, Mercedes Dorame collaborated with architectural designer Lilliana Castro to create a structure that invites the viewer to orbit through layers of home, healing, and ceremony centering on an oculus aligning with the sun. Dorame and Castro spent time with the land and environment of the park, orienting the structure in an open space with attention to the oak and sycamore trees, the sun, and city views, trying to encapsulate the layers of time and experience that exist in the space.

Focusing on the earth’s shift in regard to the sun, the Fall Equinox, and the Winter Solstice, Pulling the Sun Back – Xa’aa Peshii Nehiino Taamet examines the artists’ connection to cosmic timeframes and the ceremony behind them. In Tongva beliefs the Winter Solstice is not about focusing on being the shortest day of the year but rather on the phenomenon that on this day we pull the sun back into the sky, signaling the beginning of more light. This lens creates a space of positive potentialities and acknowledges the original caretakers of Los Angeles, the Tongva people, towards envisioning a more equitable future.