faini art | writing

driftwood bodies | 2020 – ongoing

This series, titled driftwood bodies, consists of wood prints, acrylics, and conte, charcoal, and ink drawings on both canvas and paper. The series is ongoing; emerging through and instigated by both the pandemic and escalating climate crisis, it is a study of wood that is broken and carried by water, and the bodies who live as its kin, as well as in and through the environment. It reflects on the complex sensual capacities that human bodies share with other animals, plants, and broader ecosystems. The series is a meditation on our profound interdependence with other creatures and ecosystems, on brokenness and currents, a requiem for time lived without having passed.
Wood printing process: when I find a piece of wood that interests me, I carry it home, clean the cross cut, then sand and burn it to bring the grain into better relief. I ink the woodblocks and hand print on either stretched canvas or paper.

When a pandemic ravages human sociality, rivers continue to flow, carrying and sustaining life. Fresh water finds us through its rivers, veins and arteries on all courses. They understand their role as courier; their flow is endless. One of the oldest in the planet’s history, the New curves around ancient Appalachian rock; its rapids pummel, its pockets of wilderness draw wildwood. She, long considered the longest, yielded liquid gold for gold carrying, sonic kin, to whom we all belong, who fed from her floods, her mouth open to the Mediterranean. Old as earth, she defies gravity. River’s bends, her mighty falls, cut while they shape stones, flood while they shape soil, and carry us all, weightless, infinite droplets infinitely forward to meet the sea where the world dies as it flows into the next. Before her nurturing banks and violent rapids, trees kneel. She often takes the life she seeks to support; yet, in her clear hands, driftwood might live.

the interrogation room | San Francisco International Arts Festival 2018

An immersive performance that examines the power dynamics of borders, border crossing, and bureaucratic space. Potential audience members choose roles as either participants or spectators as varied groups seek to gain citizenship in the mythical kingdom of Samchriavad. Part absurdist parody, part trenchant critique, the action takes place in Samchriavad’s citizenship processing center. The Interrogation Room follows the challenges surrounding entry to or membership in a new space, questioning the limits of human cruelty, resilience, and compassion.
Two-night performance at the San Francisco International Arts Festival. The Interrogation Room was a collaboration with Chris Hambrick, David Moren, and Sameena Sitabkhan. SFIAF performers: Julie Thi Underhill, Star Ghanaat, Paul Loper, Dorothy Santos, Lisa Wynn, David Moren, Chris Hambrick, Sameena Sitabkhan, and maria faini.

Script Writers: maria faini, David Moren, with Julie Thi Underhill | Set Design and Construction: maria faini, Sameena Sitabkhan, Tony Sgroi, and Alfredo Arroyo | Scenic Designer/Graphics: Sameena Sitabkhan | Costume Designer: Chris Hambrick | Sound Designer: Chris Hambrick

the interrogation room | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 2016-2017

An immersive performance that examines the power dynamics of borders, border crossing, and bureaucratic space. Potential audience members choose roles as either participants or spectators as varied groups seek to gain citizenship in the mythical kingdom of Samchriavad. Part absurdist parody, part trenchant critique, the action takes place in Samchriavad’s citizenship processing center. The Interrogation Room follows the challenges surrounding entry to or membership in a new space, questioning the limits of human cruelty, resilience, and compassion.
A day and evening (8+ hour) immersive performance at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The Interrogation Room was a collaboration with Chris Hambrick, David Moren, and Sameena Sitabkhan. YBCA performers: Julie Thi Underhill, Paul Loper, David Moren, Chris Hambrick, Sameena Sitabkhan, and maria faini.

nat/it/ion/al elements | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 2017

A performance that examines the movement of matter across natural boundaries and political borders, looking to how materials shape the natural environment inadvertently and to their will. Elements travel, transform, and are transformed; they serve and defeat bordered space. In this performance/installation, a being from elsewhere carries stones found in the environment and locked in a safe nearby, moving them from space to space throughout and outside the arts center. When moved, the stones gather in varies locations, interrupting installations and performances; they are then taken up again, moved or kept, by new people, other artists, performers, participants, or audience members, continuing their journey, shifting and reshaping landscapes. This interactive performance took place at The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts during the YBCA Public Square, August 2017. Collaboration with Katina Papson Rigby. Performer: Katina Papson Rigby

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Writing: maria faini and Katina Papson Rigby | Costume design: Katina Papson Rigby | Set design/construction: maria faini, Anthony Sgroi, Katina Papson Rigby | Performer: Katina Papson Rigby.

(un)forbidden: a valediction | 2016

Collaboration with Julie Thi Underhill. This photography and video collaboration examines forms of mourning, forbidden and not. It imagines mourning as resistance, marking losses otherwise forgotten or covered over. It addresses power relations of academic and nonacademic life, how they target women in particular, how they build and destroy. It mourns the ongoing, destructive, domestic and transnational legacies of U.S. militarism. We photographed various rituals of mourning, chosen and enacted by our participants.

[more images coming soon]

select early work