Sea Urchin Stains and the Capture of Eruptions
published on Verge Journal in May 2023

a text I wrote for @vergejournal in Lisbon invited by Josseline Lancaster Black and Maíra Botelho available in English and Portuguese: a journal dedicated to the ‘life-force of women’ and ‘emancipation as an endless exercise in writing the body and the body writing’.

from the text 〰️〰️

The image wide. Stretched between her legs stained by a sea creature years ago and the experience of sexual awakening in a recent summer. In the middle a cluster of colours glittering on the rocks, wet by the sea. 

I want to get closer to the image of sea urchins and desire, writing about a woman’s encounter with these hard and spiky round-shaped animals to the point of becoming slightly obsessed with an idea of them. Sea urchins are ‘impressive to behold, disastrous to touch’. Can this phrase tell something about the perilous journey of desire? Desire as circling without striking, while wanting to pierce through an image that would be more acceptable to just admire? [continues….]