DON’T FORGET WE WERE GIRLS FIRST (2025)

This project was made in Cuernavaca, Mexico, with my great-aunt Rocio and cousins Lya and Sofi. Initially, it began as an extension of my project Unfamiliar, but the work has evolved into its own, with an intention to explore the evolving roles women and girls play in each other's lives. Themes of femininity, intimacy and internalisation emerged. Underpinned by memory, which enters the project in many ways; capturing the memory of this moment with my family, referencing the memories I carry of the women in my life and presenting the imagined memories of female experiences I hold a fascination or longing for.

I wanted to depict moments of difficulty being met with empathy; interchangeably between the girls, myself and my aunt. Shared emotional experiences transcending the generational gap. The work seeks to evoke a sense of sensitivity, in women, for our younger selves, for the girls we were. Lya and Sofi remind me so much of my sister and I when we were young, being with them I realised how much of those little girls we forget. The time I spent with my cousins proved to me how much we can learn from girls, and how important it is to remain connected to them. As time with my aunt reminded me to receive care as well as give it, to access my own inner girl. I hope the work incites women to remember and value girlhood, as making it did for me. Ultimately, this project has been a true collaboration between all of four of us so thank you to my beautiful aunt and cousins; Carmen Rocio Nava Rojas, Lya and Sofia Galeano Uribe.

Mirror Image

Playing With Barbies

Still a Girl

Seventy-Four Years

Sofi and Lya Cuddle On My Bed

Her Mother Made This Pot

Lya Looking, Sofi Laughing

My Head In Her Hands

Sofi In Her Favourite Dress

Six

Tia Rocio Wating For Me

Girls In Reality

Saving Space, By Sofi

Us Dancing

Sofi Can’t Help But Smile

Sofi Takes Her Own Portrait Using Her Foot

Nine

SIENNA NAVA