Rodrigo Valenzuela, Flatlands

Flatlands, a commissioned temporary project installed on four, 8 x 12 x 4 foot plinths at Denny Way, brings Valenzuela’s “Still Life” series to a public scale,

The work is an anonymous, grid-constructed landscape, as Valenzuela describes: “images that feel at the same time familiar yet distant.” It depicts a scene that invites (and also insinuates- in the unease of invisible construction) the human player into the frame.  Viewers are encouraged to photograph themselves with the work. As the project develops, Valenzuela will gather both self-documented and crowd-sourced images, some of which he will reinstall on the same site—building a progressive narrative that is often found in his practice. See “Here.” Says Valenzuela:

I construct narratives, scenes and stories which point to the tensions found between the individual and communities. I utilize autobiographical threads to inform larger universal fields of experience. Gestures of alienation and displacement are both the aesthetic and subject of much of my work. I explore the way an image is inhabited, and the way that spaces and people are translated into images.

Flatlands will degrade with exposure in this public setting – a process that is embraced by the artist within the context of a changing site and neighborhood.

Seattle-based Rodrigo Valenzuela was this year honored with a 2014 Core Program Fellowship and Residency with the Museum of Fine Art Houston. In 2013, he received a Skowhegan residency. He holds an MFA in photomedia from The University of Washington, a  BA Philosophy from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, and a BFA in Photography from The University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, where he was born.  In 2013 he completed a campus-wide project for the University of California, Strangers in a Strange Land: The Coyote Project, in collaboration with Anastasia Hill. Valenzuela is represented by Bryan Ohno Gallery, Seattle, and Upfor Gallery, Portland.

See the Seattle Weekly story here

Pacific NW Photography story here