“And look, mother,
I am
a dark temple with your true spirit rises
beautiful
and tough as chestnut
stanchion against your nightmare of weakness
and of my eyes conceal
a squadron of conflicts and rebellions
I learned from you to define myself
through your denials.”

Audre Lorde, Black Mother Women, 1971

The flesh, in its myriad forms, emerges as a symbol—a raw remnant of our past, a tender fragment of our present, destined to fade with time. It bears witness to our struggles, etching memories into our very being. Our bodies, repositories of experience, shelter a visceral knowledge, a living testament to the events and emotions that have shaped us. Like an echo of the mind, the body replays the past through somatic symptoms—a silent language, conveying the weight of our history, the imprints of our trauma.
Have you seen that figure, draped in the trappings of society’s expectations? Its long coat, woven from the norms and dictates of the world, weighs heavily upon its shoulders. Hidden underneath this facade lies the essence of who we are—the unspoken truths, the silent struggles that shape their existence.
Chamakh’s introspective journey leads her inward, sculpting and shaping her skin to provoke feeling, to evoke alternate realities. Like a keeper of her own consciousness, she screens through the fabric of her being, selecting pieces that resonate with her present persona.

The body keeps the score of these experiences; it ‘knows’ the event in its ‘flesh’ and is a living reminder of the happening and the emotions felt at a particular time. Just as the mind can be triggered to recall past events, so does the body replay the past in the form of somatic symptoms. These symptoms are the stain of a history of emotions and trauma embedded within the tissues, which form a dynamic, unconscious memory system.
We, too, are complex tapestries—interwoven threads in the fabric of cultural and somatic systems. Our stories, entwined with others’, form the rich narrative of humanity.

Yet, beneath the surface lies a silent cartography—a map of our traumas, etched into the very fabric of our being. Each scar, each blemish, speaks volumes, revealing the burdens we carry, the wounds we bear.

In her artistic vision, Sana grants the body agency—the freedom to be molded and remolded, to wear its scars as badges of honor. She endows the body with the ability to un-pack the plethora of baggage it was carrying. And in the end, she proudly dons these fragments of her story, laying bare the layers of her existence for all to see. Here, we are encouraged to cast off the veil of fear and confront the intense depths of our emotions, revealing the concealed stories that reside within us – both those handed down to us and
those yet to be discovered.
Perhaps in seeing, we find bliss, and in breathing, we take a step into the unexplored raw realms. In this act of liberation, we find solace—a release from the burdens that bind us, a step toward reclaiming our true selves.
Amidst the scars, lies a paradoxical beauty—a cathartic release found in the transformation of pain into expression. Through the flesh, our stories find voice—words, screams, echoes of our deepest fears. Each scar, each somatic field, becomes a testament to our resilience, a testament to our ability to transcend.