On December 4th, 2016, the moon was a waxing crescent. Venus shone 85 times brighter than Mars. That same night, just before midnight, Pangea and Nico met in an artist’s colony in Brooklyn. She was returning from a photo shoot in Manhattan, and he had just stepped off a flight from Miami. They were new roommates, unaware they would be so forever.

 

Their first date was a trip to Williamsburg to retrieve her lost wallet. For their second, she tattooed his chest with a sewing needle. Within four weeks, they were on Long Island, meeting her family. A few New York City months later, they stayed in Oceanside with her generous parents, taking trains into the city at dawn and causing suburban trouble. Her family kindly loaned them their pickup, Truck Norris, and offered unfettered access to their cats, kitchen, and wisdom.

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By the end of the year, they were on the move: Miami to meet his parents; Portland to meet his friends; New Orleans to meet hers; and then to Bangkok. From Thailand, they drifted Eastward to Cambodia, Saigon, and up the coast of Vietnam. Their travel halted in Hoi An for Tet, during which she was offered a job as head designer of a fashion company. They stayed in their Central Vietnam apartment, nestled among rice fields and mountains with their tabby cat and motorbike, for nine months. The rain came down in sheets, and the moon hung low. Then they traveled to the Great Wall of China, where they were alone and cried about nothing until they were renewed.

 

At the end of 2018, a year to the day from their departure, they were in Miami. A quick visit to see Nico’s parents turned into a new life. They were grateful for the kindness of his mother and father, who put them up in the guest room of their Edgewater apartment. Pangea rented a studio, and they relocated to Midtown, then the Design District, then Little River. They set roots and planted a garden. The number of cats they cared for tripled– the capricious Cat Cat, the intrepid Tonky Boops, and their sweet brat, Banshee– and their jobs became careers. Most importantly, their art flourished, and they became frequent collaborators. No one in Miami remembered a time when they weren’t together, and as the days ran on, neither could he.

 

In November 2020, with the world gripped by crises and uncertainty, it was a good time to consider oblivion and infinity. He proposed to her in Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirror room, LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER, 2017, at the Rubell collection.

 

In the short years since, she has achieved much. He, too, has notched victories. Yet no professional accomplishment compares to their ultimate collaborative project, a lifelong performance of love that has become their signature creative act.