In her solo exhibition, ancestors weep through me, Kat Cadena embarks on a powerful journey to understand how oppressors perpetuate harm to indigenous communities and the persistent patterns of complicity that enable it. A woman of color nurtured by generations of resilient, proud, and fierce mestiza women in San Antonio, Texas, Cadena invokes the support of her ancestors to guide her through the depths of her grief over the genocide of Palestinians happening right now, and over the last 70 plus years.
The installation includes an altar filled with incense, herbs, prayer candles, and more, that sit before a wall adorned with 10,000 printed watermelon seeds. The watermelon, a sign of Palestinian resistance since the Israeli occupation criminalized public displays of the Palestinian flag in the 1960s, is used here to represent the amount of lives lost at the time of installation. As of today, November 10, 2023, the death toll now exceeds 10,000 people. Utilizing the language of her ancestors, Cadena has created an altar to honor the lives lost in Palestine, the indigenous people of the Americas, and all others that have suffered under the weight of oppression and colonization. Cadena told Sala Diaz, “I want to express that although my ancestors have always walked alongside me and communicated with me, I feel them especially now…Through me, my ancestors weep and beg me to resist. Beg me to stand up. Beg me to reach my hand out into the smoke.”
ancestors weep through me is a documentation of this moment in time. It is a story of the artist’s experience wrestling with a world that puts geopolitical and capital gains before human lives, and the citizens of the world that remain seemingly unbothered by the continuous dehumanization of people
– Casie Lomeli
Casie Lomeli 