To spill one’s guts refers to “confessing” or “revealing” and, for Arau McSweeney, to the scar that runs across her abdomen. The scar is the result of numerous surgeries she had as a newborn where her guts were quite literally spilled in order to save her life. 

A few years back, Arau McSweeney made a ceramic cast of her abdomen, and painted the scar in gold. That work was left unfinished and put into storage until this past summer when Arau McSweeney brought it with her on a family trip to her hometown in Catalonia, Spain. During the trip, she began a collaboration and ongoing dialogue with her mother which resulted in these works. Spilling My Guts is a meditation on matrilineal memory, bodily testimony, and belonging.