“Mapping the Chakras of Tbilisi”
Images: Laura Arena

In these pandemic times, we are implored to change our behavior to protect the most vulnerable from COVID-19. Likewise Black Lives Matter, with the worldwide protests against police brutality and oppression of marginalized peoples, has once again cast light on problematic structures and behaviours which demand change. How do we see ourselves as responsible citizens in a world where our decisions and behaviors affect all?

In 2018 during Laura’s artist residencies in the Caucasus ” I explored these relations through an Indigenous lens in tandem with my energetic healing practice with two projects, “Mapping the Chakras of Tbilisi” (3rd Annual Tbilisi Triennial, and the 11th Annual Artisterium Tiblisi Contemporary Art Exhibition, Tbilisi, Georgia), and “Learning How to Fly” (ARTsakfest, Nagorno Karabakh).”

“Learning How to Fly“
Images: Laura Arena

“‘Learning How to Fly‘ is an exercise in speaking to our ancestors to deepen our connection to ourselves, our values, and intentions. To bridge the gap between the past, the present, and the future. This connection is a reclamation to who we are and to our connection with others. Our ancestors speak through us but we also speak through them in our actions, how we communicate, and how we think, all a reflection of how we see ourselves in the world.”, Laura explains.

“Mapping the Chakras of Tbilisi”
Images: Laura Arena

“With ‘Mapping the Chakras of Tbilisi‘, I explored deeper this relationship to ourselves, where we live and how this is determined within the body, a complex structure of different energies and actions made up of the chakra system to serve a common purpose. Each chakra uniquely transforms its nature and character based on the function of the others. In balance, we experience vital health. Out of balance we experience disease and deficiencies. In our communities, we strive for the same balance that is dependent on working together.”

Read a full article at Transitory White  – https://transitorywhite.com/articles/chakras-of-tbilisi

“In this time of uncertainty, we are called to go within to honor all our relations and reimagine the world we want to live in not just for ourselves but for all those connected with us.”

• Visit New York City, the city that never sleeps, crowded and hectic. Architectural marvel with countless dazzling skyscrapers. Full of indie record shops and backstreet jazz bars. 

• Stay with Laura at her creative hub DE-CONSTRUKT in Redhook, Brooklyn, “a project space for living, creations, and experimentation” located in an area surrounded by water, where the weather is warm and the view of lower Manhattan in just mesmerizing.