Zoraida Anaya

Ayer fue Hier/Yesterday was Yesterday (2023-2024)

This video documents my performance Ayer fue Hier (Yesterday was Yesterday). I stand before a white wall in a dimly lit room, scribbling the hours of a clock—though the clock itself does not exist; it is merely a projection cast onto the wall. I wear a bracelet I made by hand, using a bead sewing technique rooted in the traditions of the First Nations of Turtle Island. I turned to bead sewing as a way to process grief. I had lost my mother two weeks prior to this performance. The beading was reparative—a quiet, meditative act that soothed my sore soul.Try to understand the existence of time, and it may take you an eternity.Try to grasp its meaning, and you’ll find it’s an absurd pastime.Try to detain it, and you’ll only waste your own.I can only dream of containing time.I can perform my relationship with it.I can take your time—and you can time mine.Time steals.Time gives.Time takes.I save time.I waste time.I lost time.They say time heals—but does it?Perhaps it is our memory that does the healing,softening the past.

“Try to understand the existence of time, and it may take you an eternity.Try to grasp its meaning, and you’ll find it’s an absurd pastime.Try to detain it, and you’ll only waste your own.I can only dream of containing time.I can perform my relationship with it.I can take your time—and you can time mine.Time steals.Time gives.Time takes.I save time.I waste time.I lost time.They say time heals—but does it, really?Perhaps it is our memory that does the healing,softening the past.”