Performance by the Shoreline is a result of a frustrated reaction towards the outcomes of Hurricane Maria having devastated the island of Puerto Rico back in 2017. My body was not there to experience it. I was at the mainland by the time it happened. I could only process the visual information shown by the US news media and social media: the powerful, destructive winds; Donald Trump throwing paper towels; houses without roofs or with blue tarps. But the most impactful visual scene was when the water from the rivers came in the cities and towns flooding the streets and spaces. One of the footages I saw was the water from the sea rushing fiercely into my coastal hometown. Its aftermath left the island with a different landscape.
By the sea's shoreline, I perform against the wave's strength, using the body and the broom as metaphors of resistance and confrontation. In order to come up with the body's action and the significance of the object, I use as a reference a childhood memory that I have when Hurricane Georges passed through Puerto Rico. I remember vividly how the living room window broke and water came rushing in inside our home. While members of my family were covering the broken window, I saw how my mother's body took the broom and swept the water away towards the balcony. With this memory, I recreated my mother's movements to push the water back to the sea.
