ONCE IT FELL... | EILEN ITZEL MENA
Eilen Itzel Mena
Once It Fell...
September 14-27, 2018
Right Window, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
(storefront exhibition viewable 24/7)
Closing reception and performance documentation viewing:
Tuesday, September 25, 2018, 6:00 - 9:00 PM
(artist will be present via Skype from 7:00 - 8:00 PM)
Right Window is pleased to exhibit a performance and text by New York City based artist Eilen Itzel Mena.
Presented here as a wall drawing, the original oil pastel on paper text work was developed this summer during the London Summer Intensive, an artist residency organized by Camden Arts Centre and the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
The mango, as a diasporic and exoticized fruit, serves as the focal point of Mena’s latest performance work. For the duration of the show, mangoes have been left to ripen by the window. They will later be washed and consumed by guests during the viewing of Mena’s performance documentation on Tuesday, September 25th. The artist will be available via Skype from 7:00pm - 8:00pm.
Transformation and healing are important themes in Mena’s practice. According to the artist, they mark a shift of consciousness of the mind and body. Moments of transformation followed by epiphanies or realizations are crucial to Mena's understanding of trauma and are underscored in her work.
"In my practice, I explore the ways in which mundane acts can either perpetuate or heal one's past traumas. I emphasize the visceral instead of the rational. I focus on marking the ways in which one learns physically rather than logically in my work."
About Eilen Itzel Mena
Eilen Itzel Mena is a multimedia artist from the South Bronx, who recently received a B.A. in Fine Art from the University of Southern California in 2017. Her work is based on nature, race, sex and gender in an African Diasporic context. Her artistic practice includes drawing, painting, performance and installation. Through these media, her work explores the political, social, cultural, physical and emotional survival of Afro-Diasporic people. African Diasporic everyday spiritual, culinary and artistic actions are of specific focus in her work. These actions speak to cultural information passed down throughout many generations.
About Right Window
Right Window is an exhibition space located in the Mission District of San Francisco and run by a collective of artists and writers. Since August of 2007, Right Window has hosted 120 events and involved over 150 artists to engage the public in under-represented and experimental work. Exhibitions, installations, performances, readings, and screenings are staged within a sun-lit storefront window that open to the busy streets. The building is shared with Artists' Television Access (ATA), an artist-run, non-profit organization that cultivates and promotes culturally-aware, underground media and experimental art.
This exhibition has been organized by Takming Chuang. For more information, contact the artist directly at eilen.i.mena@gmail.com or visit her website at www.eilenitzelmena.com.
