Embracing Pachakuti

Embracing Pachakuti is an alternative process photography and found object-based installation depicting a window into a post-apocalyptic world. Derived from the Quechua words “pacha” meaning time-space or world and “kuti” meaning upheaval or renewal, the Andean concept may be interpreted as a hopeful future in which humans have found symbiosis with each other and our non-human relatives or as a warning in which our plant relatives have found balance without us.

An apocalypse may be a global or personal phenomenon – a community being forced to leave their homes, rapid climate change, a pandemic, the death of a loved one. Indigenous peoples from Abya Yala (so called South & Central America) and Turtle Island (so called North America), have been experiencing apocalypse for over 500 years. Yet, we are still here generations later, community-making, legacy-holding and protecting the land for our future descendants. There is always a path forward.

The decisions we make as individuals and communities in the present inform our future as a species. What future are we working toward? Do you see humans in this post-apocalyptic world?

Rosalba Breazeale (they/them, b. 1989) is an artist, educator and studio director at 205 Ocean Ave studios based on the traditional lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, so-called Portland, ME. They hold an MFA from the University of New Mexico and BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their multidisciplinary art practice encompasses analog, digital and alternative process photography, soft fiber sculpture and installation with an emphasis on regenerative practice. Breazeale’s identity as a Queer, Jewish, transnational adoptee from Peru forms the foundation from which they create work addressing connection to land, diasporic experience, European colonization and related environmental issues.

Their work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally most recently with the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland, ME, the Halide Project in Philadelphia, PA and Strata Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. In 2025, Breazeale was invited to give a talk with scientist and collaborator, Jessica Begay, at the 2025 Society for Photographic Education annual conference and to participate on an Indigo Arts Alliance alum panel honoring the legacy of David C. Driskell at the Portland Museum of Art. Breazeale is currently preparing for a small group exhibition by Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Greenville Collective featuring work by adoptees.