Maria Joranko turns the body into a terrain of memory, experimentation, and speculative possibility, weaving art, writing, and performance into a unified practice. Her practice spans sculpture, installation, performance, video, and sound, interrogating the intersections of chronic illness, race, solidarity, and alternative realities. Through this lens, she examines the potentials and vulnerabilities of selfhood, creating works that reflect the fluidity of identity, growth, and perception. Oscillating between natural and digital materials, Joranko crafts immersive environments that connect cyber and organic networks, cultivating spaces for reflection, transformation, and liberation. Her practice engages deeply with pain—bodily, emotional, communal, and spiritual—as a grounding force for transmutation and collective healing. She integrates meditation, bodywork, and material exploration into her creative process. Using soil, plant-based materials, and ancestral knowledge, she constructs objects and performances that function as relics from possible futures rooted in equity, magic, and relational connection. Drawing on her Latinx, American, and Indigenous heritage, as well as decolonial and activist practices, Joranko centers the body and community as sites for imagining new forms of care, restoration, and collective possibility. ...
