Aquí, Estoy __ / Here, I am __
River Wildmen
What does it mean when something looks like it belongs but doesn’t truly feel like it belongs? And inversely, what does it mean when something doesn’t look like it belongs but it truly does belong?
Inspired by my own experiences as a half-Mexican and half-white man primarily raised by Mexican women, this series of projects manifest a cross pollination between an artistic practice and abstract form of expression. I use visual communication design languages to portray race, culture, identity and being. In one aspect of this project, I redefine “the website” as an experimental meta-space that gives the user the chance to question the relationship between personal identity and the physical spaces we find ourselves in. Communication design has the capacity to explore traditional mediums of book, website, poster, typography, and image to expose its deeper systems of communication, that first start within the questioning of our own identities, and how they can be transformed through time, and both physical and mental space.
This project is more than what meets the eye, as the viewer’s curiosity is their main guide through a world of design and communication. This space is an invitation to engage in discursive dialogue and an abstract spatial experience where visitors can digitally interact with artwork. Most importantly, my showcasing of Mexican identity in a white space (from the body to my environment) is meant to encourage the audience to explore the relationship between our identities and our current physical spaces.