WELCOME! :)
I'm MXNGO! I'm an interdisciplinary artist creating in many mediums such as: endurance based performance, analog and digital photography, as well as rendered digital imagery.
On this welcome page I will be showing snippets of work I have made and the concepts behind them.
BURDENS
I developed a tangible connection with industrial materials while I assisted my father building a shed and repairing our cars when I was young. I identified with the materials he used because they were objects that were tossed around but retained their inherent value. The idea of being resilient resonated with me since I learned from a young age that was something I needed to be. I have been a person who is an emotional outlet for both friends and family. I never really had my own outlet to express what I felt, until I refocused my energy and internal struggles outwardly by physically expressing them through art. I make performances because they can physically manifest how I endure carrying, dragging, and lifting personal burdens. These physically challenging performances are completed in failure because they reveal my sentiment towards the plausibility of my success within the confines of my own emotional restrictions. A majority of the time, carrying the weight of another person's baggage has been too much of a burden for me. It leaves me with unresolved emotional stress. My failure to complete the strenuous tasks at hand references my inability to cope with this weight. This communication of emotions is an essential part of my performances since I am unable to express them elsewhere. This is also true for me as an individual in the sense that emotions often prevent me from reaching my goals. I do performance art because it communicates my internal struggles in a clear, physical way that I feel other mediums can’t.
I choose performances where I have heavy industrial objects, like tires or cinder blocks, tied or piled up on my body to visually represent the internal weight that I constantly carry. In some of my work, like Ascending Impediment (35lbs), I have a rope tied around my waist to physically represent the burden that is attached to me. This shows that the objects and I are unified by a link that I have not only created but is connected between us. In other performances such as Get Up (176lbs) , I chose to use a command for a title to portray what I’m trying to accomplish but can't. I have piled my burdens onto myself and it is my job to deal with them and get up but I can’t, resulting in failure. The locations of the performances aren’t so significant. As the setting changes, the intent of the work does not differ. This proves that regardless of location and/or time, the burden I carry is never altered.
SAFE SPACES
I am an emotional outlet for both friends and family. I never really had my own vent to express what I felt, so I decided to create an escape. I make these digital collages because they can manifest an alternate place by layering photos taken at different times. These collages are meant to create a safe space where I can effectively walk into psychologically and take a pause from all emotion. These Safe Spaces reveal my sentiment towards my own emotional restrictions from which I want to escape. A majority of the time, I carry the weight of another person's baggage and that has been too much of a load. This leaves me with the unresolved emotional stress that I desire to feel safe from. This communication of non-emotion is an essential part of the work since I am unable to escape them elsewhere.
LAYING BARE
Since my exploration through the work of Burdens, I have come to think about how to relay my troubles. I've always been one to be the emotional outlet but have never asked someone to be mine. I have been wondering, what are the ways one can be vulnerable? How can I display vulnerability when I have never given myself room for it? I never allowed myself to have that space or to show someone myself vulnerably.
This new series in my body of work is titled Laying Bare, in which I embark on my own journey to figure out all the ways I can be vulnerable. In doing so, I am not only being vulnerable with myself but am choosing to radically show those who view my work myself as my most vulnerable.
