“Journey of the Invader Spirit”

From the exhibit at The Peale Museum, Baltimore MD

January-March 2023

Filmed in Northern Brazil, this video uses the conceit of an invented ‘Creation Myth’, to explore the exploitative nature of colonialism, and accompanying environmental degradations born of consumerism. In the video, the ‘Invader Spirit’ character represents the darker aspects of Western colonialism; the harm generated by the ensuing exploitation as well as all manners of pollution and how the pursuit of ‘stuff’ ends up degrading the waters and land. In the video, we see the ‘Invader Spirit’s, ways are challenged by defiant Capoeira martial artists, who want to defeat the darkness in the form of environmental harm brought on by the Invader Spirit. By connecting aspects of the colonial histories of American and Brazilian port-cities (Baltimore and Salvador) that were formed and sustained by the exploitive plantation system, the video conveys long-term environmental after-effects as well as how such problem may be ameliorated.