REAL TALK: 5 CARDS FOR LIBERATION

(An Activation of The Confluence Tarot)

Immersive Installation, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR, 2025

This multisensory installation merges decolonial tarot, moving image, sound, scent, and altar-as-sculpture, rooted in the Mississippi River Valley. Guests begin by taking a tarot booklet, then enter a dark and intimate space with plush black carpeting, infused with herbal scents while looping hip-hop, R&B, trap and jazz sounds play from a sound dome.

At the center, a five-card video reading from The Confluence Tarot, my deck in progress, plays on loop. Visitors take the role of seekers at the Querent’s seat, facing a velvet-draped table adorned with floral offerings and a crystal ball. A sculptural floor altar holds citrus, 40 oz bottles, Newports, herbs, candies, candles, flowers, and tarot cards, while a neon Tower card glows overhead, transforming the space into a living offering.

Through this work, I explore transformation, accountability, spirituality and healing, creating a portal for ancestral presence, clarity, grief, and collective imagining rooted in liberation.

Images Courtesy of Mario Gallucci