Artist's Statement

Ana Cristina Vallejo

My name is Ana and I am a love addict. All my life, I have been consumed by anxiety and trapped in a loop of rejecting the partners who want me and obsessing over the ones who don’t.

In march 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic severely hit NY and I was suddenly trapped in my apartment with myself. This ignited a process of looking inward and creating a visual language to cope with my anxiety and pain.

I exhaustively researched neuro scientific and psychological journals to understand connections between trauma, emotion regulation, addictions and attachment styles and how these factors affect our intimacy. (project website).

Humans need meaningful social bonds in order to survive. Some of us developed coping mechanisms where we learned to suppress our emotional needs (avoidant) or over activate them (anxious). Anxious and avoidant individuals attract and clash at the same time, enhancing they’re insecurities when conflict arises.

In 2020 I launched a survey where I asked people to describe how their emotions around romantic love felt. (curated answers from 100+ participants)

I am currently collaborating with a data scientist and together we are designing an anonymous survey. I want to map the data collected into an interactive archive of anecdotes and experiences around romantic intimate relationships. The data will be mapped out according to the attachment styles assessment that we do in the survey. The survey will provide an anonymous and safe space of expression for the participant. Likewise, it will bring insight to the public by showing our collective patterns but also our intricate similarities and differences.

Through this interdisciplinary scrutinization of relationships, Neuromantic delves into relationships to ultimately highlight why healthy bonds are essential for our wellbeing.