Artist Statement
Ancestral Exhaustion names a tiredness that did not begin in one lifetime. It is the inherited fatigue of always having to be alert, self-protective, and self-reliant in a world that has rarely believed our pain or fully honored our humanity. This exhaustion lives in the body and in memory, shaped by generations who learned that safety was uncertain and rest was never guaranteed.
This work holds space for that truth without apology. Exhaustion here is not weakness. It is evidence of endurance, of love carried forward, of survival practiced daily. Ancestral Exhaustion asks what becomes possible if rest is no longer conditional and our humanity no longer requires defense.