The nacre, which over time will become a pearl, begins to form when a foreign element enters the oyster. Anatomy of an Oyster is a journey into the past: a backward journey revisiting places from the author’s childhood that help contextualize her present. It traces a story of violence, reflection, and integration based on the abuse she suffered within her family during her childhood.
Above all, it is an attempt to explain what needs to be explained; a way of saying what could never be revealed to a mother who is now absent. At the same time, it is a way of making sense of it for herself. In this descent into the depths of what is distant, images and texts about the pearl-formation process accompany both new and archival photographs, along with brief notes that capture her emotional, bodily, and family memory.
The pearl, which is the oyster’s autobiography, is the result of this exploration: a quest undertaken to find it, assimilate it, and ultimately extract it.
