Sonic Offering: Forest Echoes — Transmission II (2025)

Site-specific. Calabash, speakers, modular synthesizer, carbon, and copal

Forest Echoes is a sound-based ecological project that treats the Amazon rainforest as a sentient, remembering system. Through recordings of endangered species and a bioelectrical interface translating plant activity into sound, the work creates a ritual exchange in which the forest modulates its own sonic traces, exploring memory, offering, and more-than-human communication. Read More ︎︎︎ 



Sonic Offering: Forest Echoes — Transmission I (2025)

Site-specific. Balbina Reservoir, Amazonas, Brazil


This work documents a sonic offering made on the waters of the Balbina Reservoir, a site of large-scale ecological destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. Unlike previous gestures developed within living forest ecologies, this offering takes place within a submerged landscape, where trees remain standing as residual structures of a drowned ecosystem.



Humid Echoes – Material Traces (2026)

Calabash gourd, acoustic foam, tracing paper, annatto and sediments on paper, inkjet print,
amplifier, cable, transducer and sound, mounted on board
72 × 30.6 × 3 cm; overall dimensions variable
Sound: 3:30 min, looped
Exhibited in Soft Mechanics



Developed through field recordings gathered and modulated in the Amazon using modular synthesis, the work investigates how sonic encounters are translated into sound, images and material form. Collage and sound operate as an assemblage of interrelated processes.

Forest Echoes: Cada Fruto Tiene un Eco (2026) 

Adjustable steel acrow prop, totumo, cable, rubber band, copal, cotton thread, sound exciters, red fabric, amplifier, and shaker with rubber tree seeds
Dimensions variable
Sound: 4-channel, continuous loop. 16:00min
Exhibited at Brixton House

Ya llegan las serpientes: Percusión Planetaria
(Here Come the Serpents: Planetary Percussion) (2026)

Quartz sand, mirror, acrylic, maracas, dried gourds, wood, bleached beeswax, cotton thread, Huayruro seeds, fabric, carbon, copper, sequins, flexible ducting
220 x 220 x 90 cm
Exhibited at Personal Preference, Thames-Side Studios Gallery



Antenas Sonoras, Traces of Dissent series & Audio: Alma (2026)

Handmade steel pots, wire, speaker cable, transducers, black beans, and sound
Dimensions variable 
Audio: Stereo sound, continuous loop. 13:00min
Exhibited at Peluche Express, Somers Gallery


Cellulite (2026) 

Muslin fabric, water, suntanning oil, lipstick, hair gel, bubble bath, eye shadows, concealer, Vaseline, fleece, chain, bucket, fish bags, metal clock weights, coffee, video installation in Tron Pad, fishnet, and cellulite rollers
500 × 1600 cm 
Exhibited at The Bomb Factory



The Furies Collective presented Cellulite amid intensifying territorial violence and the visible erosion of women's rights, turning to ageism as a critical site through which patriarchal structures operate. Formed by an intergenerational group of women, the project counters ageism by creating conditions to work across different temporalities, lived experiences, and cultural positions.

Uprooted: Incomplete Family Portrait & the Bleaching of Roots. (2024)

Wood, jesmonite, hair, cables, wire, beeswax, plastic bottle, ashes, copper, chain, glass
190 × 190 cm
Using the metaphor of an uprooted tree as a ghost, Toscano explores themes of migration and extraction, drawing parallels between nature, personal experience, family narratives, and history. Delving into historical roots—particularly those of the sixteenth century—She examines the coloniality of knowledge and its distinctly Western function: the possession and dispossession of land, the uprooting of belief systems, and the tangible extraction of culture buried in the soil. Read More ︎︎︎



Cerrando las Venas, (Closing the Veins) (2024–present)

Bleached Venezuelan banknotes, oil, thread, and speakers
2600 x 186 x 60 cm
Audio: Continuous loop
Exhibited at One Extended Meditation, Copeland Gallery


This installation consists of 930 uncirculated Venezuelan banknotes from 2016 to 2020, stitched together with black thread. Displayed in a cascading formation reminiscent of Kerepakupai Vená (Angel Falls), some banknotes are painted with oil and suspended using a copper tube, transforming currency into a sculptural landscape that reflects value, extraction, and loss.

Altar Mestizo I & II. (2024)

Stainless steel with UV Print, bolts and handmade paper
52 x 55 cm

            
Referencing the format of the European religious triptych, Altar Mestizo reconfigures the altar as a structure of diasporic convergence. Rooted in the artist’s spiritual lineage, the work constructs an altar of the immigrant—holding spiritual continuities carried across displacement. It becomes a space of protection, mourning, and affirmation


Traces of Dissent & Sonic Mark-Making (2025)

Handmade pots, steel, wire, glass beads, speakers
Variable Dimensions
Exhibited at The Signal. The Noise, Pai32


The cacerolazo — the act of beating pots in collective protest rooted in Latin American political history. The pot, or cacerola, is a voice of rage — a vessel of dissent embodied in material form. It shouts the tension between the hunger of the greedy and the hunger and disparity they create, piercing the ideologies crafted to justify the violence of displacement and exploitation.


Cacerolazo Aunar, at One Extended Meditation. London, UK. (2024)

Performance with Tomás Eyzaguirre

América. (2024)

Video installation

The Body Weight of Passports. (2023)

On going project
Concrete, Venezuelan passport.
215 x 102.5 x 65mm

This sculptural and performative work examines the passport as both object and mechanism of control. Cast in concrete and activated through performance, the passport acquires physical weight, transforming an administrative document into a bodily burden. The work reflects on how systems of citizenship shape mobility, belonging, and exclusion, revealing the unequal distribution of freedom across geopolitical borders.  See  Project︎︎︎


Uprooted: Ghosts & the Bleaching of Roots at Ventana Project. Berlin, DE. (2025)

Public Installation & Performance



Carbon Bonds & Fishing Spirits at the Crater (2025)

Site-specific offering: discarded wood, handmade discarded
fishnet, wire, stuff, charcoal


Transforming real-time bioelectrical signals from plants and soil into sound using control voltage and MIDI data. On the volcanic island of Νίσυρος, the environment modulates and shapes its own sonic traces—shifting rhythm, pitch, volume, and space. In this way, the landscape generates its own textures and timbres.

Cerrando las Venas (Closing the veins) series. (2025)

Bleach and painted Venezuelan banknotes, cotton thread, glass beads & Huayruro seeds.
84 x 128 cm


Learning to Read the Landscape: Ecología Semiótica.
(2025)

Thread, glass, Venezuelan banknotes, Huayruro seeds, wax, polystyrene, mirror,
wood, acetate and plaster


Portraits of Far Distant Relatives (2024) 

Steel, chain, cotton, earth, copper UV printing
20 x 28,4 cm
Exhibited at Surge Chapter. 


On the extraction of culture from the ground - Uprooted Quimbaya. One of the most emblematic treasures from Colombia, in an ongoing repatriation debate. The history of these repatriation efforts go hand in hand with Colombian studies pushing for dismantling colonial thought and revising indigenous roots to construct national identity.




Huellas y Cenizas, (Fingerprints and Ashes) (2024)

Sediments, ashes, soft pastels, acrylic on paper
These works explore primordial mark-making activated through rhythmic listening to Andean, Afro-Peruvian, Amazonian, and avant-garde jazz soundscapes. Through repetitive fingerprint gestures, the body becomes both sensing instrument and recording device. The resulting forms evoke totems, ceremonial objects, spirits, and traces, operating as material inscriptions of sonic and spiritual experience.



The Rock & The Cylinder (2024)

Found object, thread, concrete, discarded fabric, black oil stick, sediments and speakers.
45 x 36 cm
Exhibited at Fitzwilliam Museum.
Infographic sculpture, examining to what extend the imposed geometry of the urban landscape can reinforced systems of oppression. Acknowledging that space is not neutral and is imbued with historical context, I explored the subject of land division in the UK and our relationship with urban spaces in London.


Memory Behind Steel (2023)

Discarded wood, vinyl, acetate and paper print, mesh, concrete, threat and plaster.
59,5 x 43 cm

Series of artworks exploring how the imposed geometry of urban landscapes reinforces systems of oppression and disconnects us from nature. Embracing the concept of "unfinished" as a pathway to new narratives. Conventional urban design often prioritizes isolated, polished spaces, stifling urban vitality and diversity.



La Concha y La Raíz (The Shell and the Root) (2023)

Installation & Performance

Collaboration with artist Ume Dahlia. Ongoing series of performances and installations exploring cultural narratives and trauma, employing a ceremonial release ritual characterized by healing practices and hidden memories.


Paisaje Migratorio (Migratory landscape) (2023)

On going project - Venezuelan banknotes, Oil and black thread.





GLASS Speaks in five (5) different tongues (2022)

Wood, glass, vynil, hammer, blender


Participatory research performance. Inspired by psychodrama methods. Read More ︎︎︎


Can I wear my Sculpture, Yes I can. Self Portrait (2023)

Found objects from the construction site, aluminium, hoody, fabric with violent landscape in plaster and dust.
810 x 580mm

This self-portrait sculpture reflects personal and societal oppression, delving into how urban geometry and divisions reinforce such systems, impacting one's identity. It draws upon the theoretical framework of mestiza double consciousness* as articulated by Latin American writer and cultural theorist, Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa, which refers to the experience of living between two or more cultural identities.

Construction Site PortraitsLandscapes (2022)

Found object board, paper, carton, plastic paper.
594 x 841 mm.

Site-specific installation that emerged from a Psychogeography workshop at the RCA. The installation features two mixed-media compositions that visually interpret my psychogeographic encounter with Ryan and Felix, two construction workers from White City and Shoreditch.

See Project︎︎︎︎︎︎


CMP (2023)

Wood board, paper, canvas, thread, branches, oil stick, acrylic, spray paint and pencil.
104 x 67,5 cm

Untitled (2023)

Paper, canvas, discarded paper, acetate, acrylic, oil, soft pastels.
29,7 x 42 cm
Investigating the relationship between different appearances through the lens of mestiza double consciousness in relation to the city of London. I came to delve into the complex interplay of identity, culture, and perception. Mestiza double consciousness refers to the experience of individuals who embody multiple cultural identities and navigate the tensions and contradictions that arise from these multiple perspectives.


Works on Paper (2023)

Paper, mesh, discarded threads, oil, soft pastels and handmade paper.
60 x 90 mm

Concrete Upotias (2021)

Video Installation 2:00 min

Concrete Utopias explores the intersections of diverse utopian scenarios and the materiality of those.


Wet Paper Smells After Two (2) Days (2021)

Publication


Documentation of an experimental session with artist Tomás Eyzaguirre, which took place on 8 September 2021 at the White Rectangle in Berlin.

Maria Helena Toscano is an artist, researcher and designer based in London & Berlin.