LILIANA MEJÍA
DRAWING & PAINTING
RECENT WORK
Growth patterns, hidden geometries, nano-structures, frequencies, worlds and maps, territory and thought connections, links and infrastructure. Essential building blocks of incredible diversity.
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HYPERSPACE
Reflecting on elements around physical and psychic environments and bringing them to a common ground, the surface of the painting becomes a platform to combine both worlds and create a subtle narrative for intangible realities.
Working on raw plywood brings new possibilities of depth and atmosphere for the work, to explore worlds of emotional landscapes and the elusive sides of our experience.
DISSIPATIVE STRUCTURES
These series developed from my interest in duration and the natural flow of liquid interacting with different kinds of surfaces. Refering to recording movement and time through the marks left behind. Choosing different kinds of liquids and papers, the flow and process of drying is delayed and produces elongated moments layered into the structural components of the image. After laying out the foundation I work on details creating sections of weavings that act as elements of contention for the living structure. A metaphor of how to gently hold a delicate and dissipative structure in suspension. This interaction becomes a contradiction, questioning the nature of the elements in themselves.
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SOUNDSCAPES
These series are based on a primordial interest in the relationship between place and time. The common thread is the soundscape experience and the idea of creating a language to record it visually and to reflect and evoke an organically evolving system.
SOUND INSTALLATION
Soundtracks better appreaciated using headphones
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ARTICULACION
Rice paper, wire mesh, glue, fur, speakers, surround sound system - 2007
This sound installation is inspired by the experience of dislocation. Being thorn between two places and a sense of displacement in the winter time. The piece was created initially to be part of Data Poiesis, curated by Krista Connerly, at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
The audio is a binaural experience, composed of sounds gathered from my surroundings during the winter: pine cones, icicles braking, snow, etc. The sculpture is composed of four floating parts that snap together and interact as a joint in our body, all parts depending on the other's movement.
The viewer puts the head in a hole lined with rabbit fur. The experience of darkness, while allowing a moment of vulnerability to listen, brings the piece to completion.
GERMINADOS
Six channel sound installation, ceramic, copper tubing, custom speakers, surround sound system - 2006
"Sprouted" is based on my experience of the seasonal changes. Coming from a tropical country I never saw these transitions before, being in the rocky mountains of Colorado for the first spring in the Roaring Fork Valley, I was enchanted by the way the water was flowing around me. Tons of snow melting created a constant dripping and a deep change in the perception of time. While the sky was silver blue and the sun was shining everyday, one felt like it was constantly raining.
I had just moved from a big city, where I was drawing my inspiration from the urban experience and using industrial materials for my projects. Coming to such a different environment inspired me to apply a similar strategy but turning to the materials now connected to this place. I was part of the staff at Anderson Ranch Arts Center where the ceramic program is an important program and presented a great opportunity for me to explore clay for this project.
This piece was also installed at ARAC@AAM at the Aspen Art Museum on 2008, an exhibition curated by Dan Cameron, Laura Hoptman and Lauri Firstenberg.
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SONIDOS NEGROS
- "Sonidos negros detrás de los cuales están ya en tierna intimidad los volcanes, las hormigas, los céfiros y la gran noche apretándose la cintura con la Vía láctea." -
Juego y Teoría del Duende, F. García Lorca, 1933
Headphones, mp3 player, woven rope cone, acrylic ink on arches paper tryptic - 2007
Based on the conference Play and Theory of Duende by Federico García Lorca, Kathleen Loe and Susan Working curated the exhibition In the search of duende, inviting artist to explore the concepts expressed in his work.
This installation was inspired by the poetic phrase included in the title of the piece: Black sounds from which are already in tender intimacy the volcanos, ants, zephyrs and the great night pressing her waist agains the Milky Way.
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SONIEDRO
Two channel sound, booklet, amplifier, custom speakers, cd player, aluminum structure, folding chair, polyvynyl, velcro, wood base with metal finish - 2000
I am interested in the perception of time passing and our relationships with the ever-changing environment. I believe that sound is the ‘matter’ or phenomena that fills the intersection between time and space.
I have been practicing active listening for many years as the main source for inspiration for my work. When I lived in the city my work referred to the relationship of the citizen with the city and its effects on perception of time, space, duration, identity, self-awareness, surveillance, vital space, etc.
“Soniedro” is a public art - sound installation that acted as a transitory space to break the inertia of city time and noise pollution, to create a gap in daily movements, where pedestrians gave themselves the opportunity to release all self protection mechanisms and surrendered to active listening during the playtime of the sound pieces.
The pedestrian stopped for a moment, entered a space that replaced his natural vital space with an outer protective membrane, allowing his senses to relax. The listener could select from ten soundtracks based on the drawings the compositions derived from. Given the fast pace of the urban time, each piece has a maximum duration of one minute.
