ASH AUSTIN

'Aguas del Olvido, Mujeres que se Diluyen' was made in collaboration by Mexican choreographer/poet Karla Trad and Ash Austin. The title, translating directly to 'Forgotten Waters, Women Who Dissolve', was born out of a series of three poems by Karla Trad which explore female identity in a country with one of the highest femicide rates in the world. 'I died three times but this time, I knew it was the last' Trad plays with the juxtaposition of actual and metaphoric death, blurring the line between the two throughout the three-part series of poems.

The video explores these metaphorical deaths in three parts, representing three different poems, choreographies, and visual textures. Austin interpreted these poems visually through the use of location, cinematography and editing. Formally a fashion designer, she also conceptualized the deaths through transparent organza 'body bags' for the dancers to explore their movement, or lack thereof, ultimately symbolizing a metaphorical suffocation, restriction, or glass ceiling so to speak.