User:Gracelee21/Marion C. Martinez

About
Marion C. Martinez is a renowned modern Latinx artist who utilizes technological waste to create unique narratives and future perceptions of the Latinx identity. She formerly worked as a family systems therapist in her earlier years. In 1996, she officially transitioned into becoming a full-time artist. Famously known for her circuit board art, she labels this new genre as "Mixed Tech Media." Her art blends electronic elements of wires and circuit boards with historic stories to visualize an unforeseeable future. Her revolutionary art is currently displayed in museums around the world in the US, Canada, Mexico, and more. These creations were also featured at several corporate art collections of Fidelity Investments and Nokia Corporation.

Background

Marion C. Martinez was born in Española, just north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Growing up in the farming communities, Martinez attended the parochial school on the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, where she became engaged with Native American culture and New Mexican traditions. Martinez spent her childhood in a remote town, Los Luceros, New Mexico, just forty-five miles from the Los Alamos National Laboratories. Martinez worked alongside her father, mother, and sisters at the lab. She takes deep inspiration in her childhood experiences and family's past. Martinez and her family were also devout Catholics, attending religious services weekly. From there, she graduated from the college of Santa Fe to pursue a career as a family systems therapist also while garnering more interest for technology and art. Taking influence from her religious and family background, Martinez begins to incorporate these identities into a narrative surrounding a new genre of visual arts.

History
Through her artwork, Martinez attempts to address New Mexico's deep nuclear identity. Following the first atomic bomb detonation on July 16th, 1945, New Mexico was the first bomb site and dumping ground for advanced-technological material. This posed harmful environmental effects and sociological effects on nearby communities. By incorporating elements of radioactive waste, Martinez transforms this nuclear past and complex identity to carry it into her newly futuristic depictions. By doing so, she offers a new meaning and understanding of the nuclear identity for Latinx individuals today.

 Materials 

Martinez uniquely utilizes materials such as copper and nickle. While these materials offer an optimistic message through their shimmering exuberances, there exists an underlying message. Simultaneously, Martinez uses these materials to acknowledge the controversy of material waste and the detrimental impact that has been made on the external environment. By recycling these materials, Martinez speaks to the perils of material waste and the importance of environmental safety and sustainability.

 "Land of Enchantment" 

Additionally, Martinez serves to question the romanticized identity of New Mexico as a "Land of Enchantment". Abandoning the preconceived ideas of New Mexico, Martinez offers new meanings to cultural identity. In doing so, Martinez acknowledges New Mexico's difficult past and historical struggles while also offering an alternative narrative for Chicanafuturism. She does not ignore New Mexico's past. Rather, she reveals a hidden truth of the nuclear identity to abandon the fantasized perceptions of New Mexican ideals. Instead, she offers a new way of envisioning the land and its culture through modern materials.

Major Artworks
 AzTechnas 

'AzTechnas' describes imagery that takes experiences from the ancient Aztec and Olmec civilizations. The term was created by Martinez herself. Through these creations, she refers to the histories of the first inhabitants of ancient Mexico and the indigenous communities in the Southwest of the United States. By taking inspiration from these cultures, Martinez brings history to life through reconfiguration of e-waste. Various designs include: Long Ladies, Corn Dancers, and Mudheads. These figures demonstrate the stories of ancient myths and legends, reflecting the movement of spirits through space and time. Each masterpiece is intended to represent a traveling mechanism from past, present, and future. Each transformative and moving piece carries the histories of ancient Mexico and indigenous stories while suggesting wonders of the future.

 Wall Hangings 

"Blessings from the Little Flower"

This wall hanging is a depiction of the figure, Therese of Lisieux. The piece consists of a womb with a label that reads "700 PCB MOTHER BOARD". This message offers a commentary on how women's bodies may serve to unite the future with the past. With technological elements, Martinez displays the womb as a vessel for new ideas to be reborn with historic nuances. In doing so, Martinez evokes the ' Nuevomexicano past ' with an uncertain yet intriguing 'Nuevomexicana ' future.

"La Virgen of Guadalupe"

Martinez takes a universally conceived figure and creates a radicalized concept of a modern women. Still maintaining the Virgen Guadalupe's original shape and figure, Martinez does not abandon her physical essence. Rather, she takes this well-known image to inspire a new envisioning through an intricate wall hanging. This newly constructed wall hanging showing the famous Virgin of Guadalupe, steps away from the rules of art in the modern world. By reshaping the Virgin's figure through different placements and technological materials, Martinez challenges the rather oppressive form of nostalgia solely told by Western culture. The significance of this piece is held in its non-traditional approach and new angles of perception beyond a Western voice. By shaping the Virgin of Guadalupe through materials that carry a complex New Mexican history, she is able to tell her own story in her own words and experiences.

Cyber Feminist Futurisms
Martinez makes a statement as an emerging Latinx female artist. She offers a form of social therapy for Latinx women through her electronic creations by creating a new space for futuristic narratives involving societal spheres of technology. By challenging society's constructive stereotypes regarding the visualization of women, Martinez reconfigures the ideals of a woman as a Chicana futurist artist. In futuristic narratives that remove Chicana individuals from the picture, Martinez forms a new space for Latinx individuals to exceed a single narrative. Not only does Martinez break traditional standards of the art world, she creates a new space for re-envisioning of the embodiment of a woman in the future through cyber technological materials. Through the fluid shaping and recreation of the feminist identity, she incorporates modern technology to offer a support system for feminist identities within the Latinx community.

Rewriting the Future
While serving homage to the New Mexican past, Martinez exceeds the limits of history to utilize modern technology to rewrite this past as it was originally told. Martinez successfully creates a new understanding to combat the lack of presence in envisioning Chicana women in the futurist and post-human context. Marion C. Martinez is a key figure in paving the way for future Latinx artists who strive to incorporate their identities and histories through unique and speculative approaches.

Martinez calls to attention surrounding New Mexico’s history as a dumping ground for electronic waste material and reshaping ‘waste’ into a new form of art. Through every detailed placement and figure, the burdens of the technological waste instead serve as a liberating piece for Chicanas in the present and future. Behind these creations exist an intricate set of elements that demonstrate the Chicana narrative in action. Martinez shapes the future for Latinx individuals by preserving New Mexican history and intertwining it with a newly yet carefully shaped futurist identity. Establishing a new post human aesthetic based on complex experiences, Martinez creates a fluid and malleable visualization that transcends both social construct and time.