Experience the transformative solo exhibition of Maryland-based artist Ciarra K. Walters. Through performance and video, Walters transforms her body into temporary sculptures, embedding herself in natural and architectural environments across the U.S. and internationally. Her ritualistic, intuitive movement films explore the reclamation of self, power, and the body’s deep connection to place.

Curatorial Statement

Above, Below, Within is a solo presentation of performance-based work by interdisciplinary artist Ciarra K. Walters. Based in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Walters embeds her body within natural landscapes, interpreting the influence of her surroundings as she shifts, flows, and shapes herself into living movement sculptures. Often dressed in color-coded uniforms representing one of the seven Chakras, she centers each performance on the spiritual strengths they embody. Outstretched arms echo horizon lines; legs tilt toward cardinal directions as scenes cut between waterfalls, deserts, and human-made monuments. Captured intuitively on video, Walters invites viewers to witness her spirit in communion with the skies above and the earth below.

Stunning vistas serve as familiar entry points into Walters’ meditative practice where she confronts grief, emotional vulnerability, and endurance. While she is typically the sole figure within the frame, she is rarely alone. In Me the Tree, Like My Mother Eileen (2024), Walters, dressed in brown, roots herself in an autumnal mountain forest in Maryland. Surrounded by hibernating trees, she embodies a poem addressed to her late mother as lines of yellow text briefly appear above her crown. In Blue Like Some Part of the Ocean (2020), her performance is interrupted by tourists passing through the sandy seascape behind her. Despite the disruption, Walters completes her movement cycle, then rushes forward to stop the camera, asserting presence, persistence, and control within an ever-changing environment.

Across these works and more, Walters positions the body as a strong vessel and instrument, where inner transformation meets external force. Landscape, weather, memory, and interruption become collaborators, revealing movement as care, resistance, and spiritual return. As you move through the space and approach the performance platform in the center of the room, consider how breath, movement, and repetition might open new ways of being, above, below, and within.