Rebeca Méndez

Artist’s Statement

My art practice is in various media – photography, 16mm film and immersive architectural video and sound installations – with which I explore the nature of perception and media representation, specifically how cultures express themselves through the style of nature that they produce at a given time and the medium through which they construct this nature.

My interest in the nature of matter – in cycles and systems, specifically the forces and cross-rhythmic tensions that make natural phenomena emerge – stems from my growing up in two seemingly entropic environments, Mexico City and the Mexican jungle, where I would follow my father in pursuit of Mayan archaeology. Common to both environments is hypercomplexity, multiplicity and constant change. My moving to Los Angeles and expeditions to geologically young Iceland, Patagonia and the Sahara have furthered this impetus.

My work is driven by the concept of élan vital, developed by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, who described it as “the explosive internal force that life carries within itself,” which he claimed animates all being. My At Any Given Moment series is further informed by the ideas of the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, who said: “We are all transistors, in the literal sense. People always think they are in the world, but they never realize that they are the world.”

Website: rebecamendez.com

Biography

Select Solo Exhibitions

2010
Rebeca Méndez: About To Happen, curated by Barbara Drucker, Eli & Edythe Broad Art Center, Los Angeles.

2009
At Any Given Moment, Grass #1, curated by Camilla Trigano,Environment Furniture Gallery, Los Angeles

2007
Each Day at Noon, curated by Sunook Park, AND/LAB ART, Los Angeles

Select Group Exhibitions

2010
Cinema Loop, curated by Paul Young, ARCO Madrid: 29th International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain

2009
Scalable Relations, curated by Christiane Paul, Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irvine, Calif.

2008
Body + Art + Disease, curated by Stephanie Adcock, Bermant Gallery, Los Angeles

2007
HAAZ PreView Show, curated by Murat Patavi, HAAZ Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey

Select Community-Based Artwork

2010
Value Exchange (in progress), permanent public art installation. Spring Street Pocket Park, Los Angeles

2009
Responsive Environments Colloquium, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

2008
Tree by Tree, from Sea to Mountains, permanent public art, mural. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

2007
Art and Activism Lecture and Workshop ‘Design as a Social Force’, University of California, Los Angeles, Art|Sci Center, Los Angeles

Select Fellowships and Awards

2010
Art Residency, The Arctic Circle Expedition, The Farm, Inc., New York

2009
Graphis Gold Award for Tree by Tree, From Sea to Mountains, a permanent public art installation at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

2008
Art Residency, Gunnar Gunnarson Foundation at the Skriduklaustur, Iceland

2007
Graphis Platinum Award for Grass and Homeland #1, two permanent public art installations at The University of Cincinnati Recreation Center, Cincinnati

EDUCATION

1996, M.F.A.
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.

1984, B.F.A.
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.