HD Stereo, 02:30
2023
Produced during the Banff iteration of Kinship Care Community, this video emerged through research surrounding the endangered
Banff Springs Snail (Physella johnsoni) and local ecological histories. Combining documentation, performance, and parafictional gestures, the work imagines humans becoming temporary surrogate carriers for the vulnerable species. Throughout a symbolic gestation period, participants carry the snails and hum lullabies to them. Individual voices gradually merge into a collective song, creating a temporary community connected through acts of attention and care. When the snails are considered ready to return to the world, participants place them inside their mouths the warm, damp cavity becoming a final shelter that echoes the caves where the species naturally lives. As they release the snails back into their habitat, they sing a farewell lullaby. Moving between carrying, singing, and letting go, the work reflects on care not as possession or permanence, but as a relationship shaped by accompaniment, release, and transformation.