carved lava boulders, red rock, copal, soil, steel
June 2025 – October 2025
slips of breath through cracks of time: to burn, to flow, to rise, to hold is a lava rock installation by Los Angeles-based artist Jackie Amézquita that symbolizes the connection between earthly and divine realms. Through the strategic placement of lava stones, ceremonial use of copal, and sonic performance, Amézquita’s lava rock installation is a testament to the enduring relevance of ancient wisdom in our contemporary world. The installation serves as an artistic expression and a functional spiritual tool, opening channels for ancestral communication, spiritual healing, and community reflection, emphasizing the cyclical nature of life and the transformative power of fire.
At the heart of Amézquita’s project lies an orchestrated arrangement of lava rocks, each positioned to correspond with the four cardinal points: north, south, east, west. This geographic precision reflects a deep understanding of ancient cosmologies and spiritual beliefs. Lava stones are believed to be repositories of the world’s accumulated wisdom, formed over millennia through volcanic processes. Their very essence carries the memory of the earth’s transformations. As such, these lava boulders serve as energetic portals, facilitating connections between the terrestrial world and the spiritual realm of the underworld.
Developed in dialogue with LaRissa Rogers’ Going to Ground installation (the sculpture directly across from this installation), Amézquita’s project aims to offer protection to–and explore additional dimensions of–the site-specific histories of earth and soil from which Rogers’ project was built.
Location:
Previous Work
Trazos de energia entre trayectorias fugaces (Strokes of energy between impermanent traces), 2025
About the Artist
slips of breath through cracks of time: to burn, to flow, to rise, to hold is a lava rock installation by Los Angeles-based artist Jackie Amézquita that symbolizes the connection between earthly and divine realms. Through the strategic placement of lava stones, ceremonial use of copal, and sonic performance, Amézquita’s lava rock installation is a testament to the enduring relevance of ancient wisdom in our contemporary world. The installation serves as an artistic expression and a functional spiritual tool, opening channels for ancestral communication, spiritual healing, and community reflection, emphasizing the cyclical nature of life and the transformative power of fire.
Amézquita holds an AA in Visual Communications from LAVC, a BFA from ArtCenter College of Design, and a MFA from UCLA. Amézquita has exhibited with The Hammer Museum, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) CA, LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) CA, 18th St Art Center CA, The Armory Center of the Arts CA, Vincent Price Art Museum CA, The Annenberg Space for Photography CA, Human Resources Los Angeles CA, MAD (Museum of Art and Design) NY, amongst other institutions and organizations. Amézquita is the recipient of. the Mohn Land Award (2022), Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts Los Angeles Art Fund (2022), and National Performance Network Fund (2022).
Amézquita’s work is part of the permanent collection of The Hammer Museum. Amézquita has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, Walker Art Center Magazine, among other publications. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California — the unceded land of the Tongva people.
Project Collaborators
Composer and sound artist Micaela Tobin wields her soprano voice against the confines of convention, specializing in experimental and contemporary realms of opera and noise. Micaela focuses on building connections between the physical voice and one’s “inner” voice as a means of empowerment, challenging colonial stories and systems. Integrating voice with electronics, ritualized gesture and amplified object-symbolism, she weaves dynamic music that is at once alluring and demanding.
With her primary project, White Boy Scream, Micaela dissects her operatic and extended vocal techniques through hardware, oscillating between extreme textures of noise, drone, and sound walls. Here, she explores her diasporic identity as a first-generation Filipina-American. Her most recent full length album BAKUNAWA (Deathbomb Arc) includes elements of sonic ritual, ancient myth, and ancestral memory. Of the album, The New Yorker asserts, “Opera would do well to pay attention.” The album was ranked #9 Release of 2020 in The Wire. Her upcoming album, APOLAKI, continues this thread, already declared by Passion of the Weiss as “a brilliant showcase in the evolution of her art [that] pushes her alchemized sound to its absolute limits.”
As a composer and director, Micaela presented her cinematic debut at REDCAT in May 2021, titled BAKUNAWA: Opera of the Seven Moons, as an adaptation of the synonymous album. Continuing her series incorporating the precolonial mythology of the Philippines, Micaela premiered her second opera in July 2023, APOLAKI: Opera of the Scorched Earth, at the historic Zorthian Ranch. She performed as the principal role of Coyote in the critically acclaimed opera, SWEET LAND (dir. Yuval Sharon & Canuppa Luger; Comp. Raven Chacon & Du Yun.) Her talents were also displayed in The Industry’s groundbreaking piece, Hopscotch Opera, A Mobile Opera for 24 Cars (dir. Yuval Sharon); as principal vocalist in the premiere of Ron Athey and Sean Griffith’s automatic opera, Gifts the Spirit; and as a soprano soloist alongside Annette Bening in the play Medea at UCLALive.
Micaela is the proud recipient of the 2021 MAP Fund, the 2022 NPN Creation & Development Fund, and was most recently awarded the 2024 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. She is currently based in Tulsa, OK as an awardee of the 2025-2027 Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
Beyond her own creative output, Micaela has fostered young and new talent as a voice teacher on faculty at the California Institute for the Arts and through her experimental voice hub, HOWL SPACE.
A Special Thank You to Our Supporters
Public Art on The Greenway is made possible with major support from the Mass Cultural Council, the Barr Foundation, Goulston & Storrs, the Greenway Business Improvement District, the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, Meet Boston, the Wagner Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation.
Additional support is provided by the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee, and the New Commonwealth Fund.
Special thanks to JetBlue, Yotel, and The Dagny Boston.
Sincere appreciation for our collaborators Micaela Tobin, Esau Rosales, Gina Clyne, Jose Godiñez, Vladimir Santos, L. Lara Trucking, Sunburst Rock, and Organic Soil Solutions.
About The Greenway and the Conservancy
The Greenway is a contemporary public park in the heart of Boston. We welcome millions of visitors annually to gather, play, unwind, and explore. The Greenway Conservancy is the non-profit responsible for the management and care of The Greenway. The majority of the public park’s annual budget is generously provided by private sources.
The Greenway Conservancy Public Art Program brings innovative and contemporary art to Boston through free exhibitions that engage people in meaningful experiences and dialogue with art, each other, and the most pressing issues of our time. Past Greenway exhibitions can be viewed on the Public Art Instagram (@greenwaypublicart) or The Greenway website (https://www.
