Visceral Geography

Cracked sidewalks, busted street lamps, boarded buildings- these environmental defects impact an individual on many different levels from one’s mental wellbeing and her emotional and physical security. Visceral Geography was a collaborative project with a women’s coalition, Collective Mujer (Women United for Justice, Equality, and Respect) formed by three Latina women groups in the Chicago Southwest side whose mission is to eliminate domestic violence through community engagement and empowerment.

The project looks at how one’s body responds to physical space subconsciously. It starts from not feeling safe in your own space and body and the impact of internalized oppression and trauma. These traumas, often violent & emotional, then impact how one embodies space in public and private spheres that is connected to the safety, mental wellbeing, and one’s emotional and physical security in both of these spheres.

The project was carried out in two parts; the first part was body mapping and the second part was community mapping. The women identify places on the body that had pain, trauma, etc., and during the community mapping, they point out triggers, such as walking alone on a desolate street with boarded buildings that bring about a heightened awareness when they find themselves interacting with certain dilapidated geographic sections of their neighborhoods that further impacted their stress and negatively impacted their ability to heal.