In Gravity of the Immigrant, geology student + artist Jason Wilson Navarro-Lopez challenges geology’s claim to objectivity, insisting that the Earth is known through bodies, histories, and movement. Following critical geographer Kathryn Yusoff’s work on geology and race, they explore gravity as a geosocial force that names the intimate calculus of space and time, that has constructed the lifeworld of their transnational family from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala to South Central Los Angeles.

The project uses speculative animation and electronic sound to construct a geological field site from their family’s living room. This geological field of time organizes five sample sites: a black hole, a garden, a comal, a bus, a mountain. Each operates as a temporal register: points of contact between deep time and my family.

In this way, the field site becomes both scientific and intimate: a space where Earth’s physics are reimagined through abolitionist worldbuilding within a physical installation at Casa Zapata, Stanford's Latine ethnic theme house. Gravity of the Immigrant will also be available online beginning May 22nd through New Art City, a virtual exhibition platform. The exhibition can be accessed here: https://newart.city/show/gravityoftheimmigrant

This project was completed as part of Stanford Arts Institute's Honors in the Arts program