These two pieces feature a young man and woman of Indigenous Mexican descent, with spiders for heads. But more than that, these pieces to me have come to represent the reclamation of my identity in a modern and pragmatic way. The Native American body and soul is still present, despite centuries of hardship. These two pieces represent a modern finding of one’s own godliness amidst one’s animalistic nature, and the union of the two, revolving around the question: why do we devalue things that are closer to the earth? It’s about saying “I am something that crawls, that came from the earth and is sustained by it,” and seeing the holiness in that. For me this is a cathonic renaissance of the Indigenous identity.
Mateo Omar aka Arachnidoll, is a 21 year old artist of Amerindian/European descent. He lives in Oceanside, California where he photographs people in his life, as the basis for his art.
Follow him on Instagram at @arachnidollhouse