Literary journalism, cultural studies, and art

Gaynes conducts oral history research with indigenous communities working to conserve ancestral modes of healing in Indonesia. While initially focused on complex relationships between women healers and clinical health workers in the Solor Archipelago, she has expanded her research to focus on how spirit mediums work alongside village restorative justice systems to resolve psycho-social trauma after periods of violence.

Gaynes uses printmaking, pastiche, and cut-paper art to empathically connect with distant narrators and to convey the visceral dimensions of her cultural research. She also uses her art practice to document the “reality” of inner demons shaping imaginations, perceptions, and behaviors.

Gaynes' short stories and poetry tease apart networks of connection—interpersonal, biological, historical—buried beneath immediate perception and coloring our shared experiences.