This work was born from two bodies: one that left, and one that stayed. It began in the space between Santo Amaro da Purificação, where I was raised, and New York City, where I’ve lived for the past two years. It began the moment my mother stood at the door and asked, “Why so far, my son?” And from the answer she stitched together herself: “To bear the wait, I’ll crochet. Just like I did when I carried you inside me.”

 

That thread — of time, of love, of blood — is the line I follow. Every crochet piece in the images was made by my mother, still in Bahia, weaving protection into my path. Each stitch is care, prayer, and memory. Her way of keeping me whole, of not letting me — or herself — be forgotten. A new umbilical cord, stretching across oceans and generations.

 

The title comes from manumission letters in Brazil, where it was written: “As if born free.” A phrase heavy with contradiction — even in freedom, there remains the mark of bondage. By reclaiming it today, I try to shift its meaning. If paper could not fully liberate, perhaps thread can. Here, freedom is not granted — it’s sewn, whispered, insisted upon.

 

There are 38 works in a variety of mediums — oil on canvas, audiovisual pieces, and crochet (in collaboration with Katia Boa Morte, the artist’s mother) — all bound by a visceral thread. To date, only a few have been revealed to the public, in Brazil (Salvador, Bahia, Jan. 2025) and in Mozambique (Maputo, Jul. 2025). The others remain sheltered, as if still in gestation. In their own time, they too will be born into the world.