Acknowledging the reciprocal nature of migration as a non-linear course of movement, Firelei Báez seeks to underscore streams of influence that are often stifled by reductive, dominant understandings about migration that suggest a singular direction of transmission.

In Untitled (Carte de l'Isle de Saint Domingue), Báez conjures a swirling fire-walking figure whose acrobatic form stretches across a 1742 Atlas of Saint Domingue on the island of Hispaniola. The smoldering figure with limbs planted over several Caribbean nations, including modern day Cuba and Turks and Caicos, appears to be caught between a dance and a struggle, like those in Capoeira, which was developed as a veiled martial art for self-defense by enslaved peoples in Brazil. Using abstract gesture to build swirling layers that ultimately comprise a strong, shape-shifting female protagonist in the center of this composition, Báez choreographs a new relationship with these channels of movement, challenging legacies of capitalism and imperialism to create possibilities for self-determination and alternate futures.