Oir Vuelo Ver Entonar, 2025

rehydrated acrylic on raw, unstretched canvas

25” x 68”

 in developing Oir Vuelo Ver Entonar for her solo exhibition Vuelve, Oración en el Cielo during a residency at El Sur in México City, Mikell created a body of work that emphatically demonstrates the importance of protecting disabled people in the context of increasing heat and climate instability. Mikell collected three sets of data during her residency; birdsong spectrograms of species endemic to her home province of British Columbia, Canada which migrate each winter to México City, her own Heart-Rate Variation readings as she navigated disparate environments while conducting field research with a disability, and temperature rates over the duration of the residency. Mikell sought to identify the relationship these data sets possess, and how they clarify the complexities faced by these two demographics: migratory birds and disabled people. Ensuing research encouraged works which intend to highlight the inaccessibility of land-based relationships for disabled people intercontinentally, and considered how disabled people can build meaningful relationships to the land with increased accessibility, through observing shifts in how migratory birds adapt to the ecosystems they inhabit as increasing heat dictates new critical objectives in their survival. 

consistent with Mikell’s practice, this piece is composed entirely of repurposed materials diverted from cycles of disuse, in an effort to mitigate industry waste. As a result, imperfections to the surfaces of frames and canvases are to be expected. Please contact the artist with further inquiries about production.