Lili Flores–a transdisciplinary artist and researcher on Tongva Land (Los Angeles, California); Ph.D candidate at UCLA Arts, focusing on Culture and Performance, within the department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.
A selection of work exploring vitality, aesthetics, and symbiosis:
Mixed media sculptural installation exhibited at the Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica, California; severed tree trunk, balsa wood, ethylene-vinyl acetate, acrylic paint, hemp fibers, twine. Photograph by Nicole Noriyuki; 2015.
TEMPORARY TENSIONS
This ephemeral sculptural metaphor speaks for my own personal experiences of enclosure and confusion within the urban landscape that defines the ever-changing environment. Being born and raised in Los Angeles, I witness the constant development of space through vital interactions between architecture, flora and fauna. In retrospect, this piece set a foundational path towards a trajectory of investigating material culture, identity, and performance while developing an aesthetic syntax.
Page excerpt from the brochure publication accompanying The Hammer Museum exhibition, Inside the Mask. Brochure layout design by Tara Morris; 2020.
SPECULATION
The image of the mask rotating and echoing through space and time is a still from a 3D animation of masks from The Fowler Museum Collection. In collaboration with professional dancer KJ Wade and dancer-researcher Ryan Rockmore, I recorded their bodily motions as they were dancing to house music with their respective movement vernaculars. Using CAD, I mapped their movement to animate the 3D models of the masks. Collaborating with individuals and materiality in this manner allows for me to touch on topics of cultural heritage, syncretism, performance from a post-humanist perspective and to imagine futures where indigenous resurgence and repatriation may take place.
Inside the Mask, installation view. Animation displayed asynchronously alongside documentary film by Chase Niesner representing the blessing ceremony conducted by the Ventura Family.
COLLABORATION
As an ensemble, our interdisciplinary cohort negotiated various perspectives throughout the curatorial process for the Inside the Mask exhibit at The Hammer Museum. Working closely with ethnomusicology PhD student, Xun Pal (Juan) Cristobal and environmental science PhD student, Chase Niesner, we participated in the blessing of the masks and worked on sound and video editing together.
VITAL VIRTUALITY
3D animation by Lili Flores Raygoza in collaboration with Xun Pal (Juan) Cristobal, KJ Wade, Ryan Rockmore, UCLA LUX LAB. Exhibited in the Inside the Mask Exhibition at The Hammer Museum; circa 2020.
The Codex Mendoza as a Thick Map; March 2019.
ARCHIVAL
Concept art for augmented reality experience. Pages selected from the Codex Mendoza depict life history and mythology present after initial Spanish contact with the indigenous Nahuatl population circa 1542 in Mexico City. Layering these pages illustrates the argument that domestic and private rituals echo the mythological and urban structures of Tenochtitlan and how identity itself is a multi-modal performance.