FEITO NAS COXAS, 2026
Installation in Picking Up SeaShells Amid A Tsunami,
Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz California
Rubble from people’s destroyed homes in Lebanon, clay, concrete, and collective labor.
Feito nas coxas is a Brazilian Portuguese expression meaning “made on the thighs,” used to describe something made imperfectly or without care. A widely repeated—but historically disputed—account traces the phrase to colonial Brazil, where enslaved laborers were said to have formed clay roof tiles over their thighs. Research suggests that tiles were more likely made using wooden molds, so this history should be presented as a popular narrative rather than an established fact. (Research overview)
This work reclaims the expression, transforming its associations with imperfection and colonial violence into a gesture of care. Rubble carried from Lebanon was combined with clay and concrete during a collective workshop. Participants processed fragments of destroyed homes and shaped tiles across their thighs and other parts of their bodies.
Through this intimate act of making, the body becomes both mold and architecture. The workshop created space to reflect on home, displacement, diaspora, and colonial violence—while asking how fractured materials might become the foundation for new networks and structures of support.