The first figure represents a young man, wearing reflexo in his hair — bleached in small circles, a common aesthetic among favela youth — and adorned with a necklace of olho-de-cabra seeds, a species native to the Atlantic Forest, symbolizing that he is a native of that land.
Beside him stands his guardian: an encantado with wings made of real duck, rooster, and guinea fowl feathers — the latter, a bird native to West Africa, whose plumage naturally carries the same white dots as the reflexo. The guardian wears a balaclava with bleached circles in the hair, a reference to the gesture common among favela youth who, when photographed, cover their faces as a way of protecting their identity. Thus, the mask symbolizes the preservation of collective identity in the face of public exposure and the violence of the external gaze.
Between the real and the mythical, My Wings, My Identity materializes the idea of ancestral protection, where the everyday aesthetics of the favela transform into a language of belonging, resistance, and identity.
