Guadalupe Martinez
Argentina
The Gam Gallery, 2011
All day durational performance.
My work is a constant exploration-of and experimenting-with identity, place and materials. As a recent immigrant to Canada, the interrelationship between body, self and territory has become the main focus in my practice. This interest is stemmed in the desire to understand subject-object relational dynamics within a conceptual framework that comprises otherness, hybridization and deterritorialization as the main concerns. In a world where we are physically and intellectually confronted to diversity and multiculturalism, my work intends to trace the touchstone for understanding that which defines identity and that which creates the sense of difference. I am currently investigating the ways in which ritual may take place as a formal platform for my practice. I consider Performance Art to be the foundation of and Art, which embodies meaning through action and experience and for this reason I devote my practice to cultivating this medium. For LIVE I desire to explore the idea of Pilgrimage as an ongoing search for place and home.
Biography
Guadalupe Martinez is an interdisciplinary Argentine artist currently based in Vancouver, B.C. Martinez obtained a BFA from the National University of Arts in Buenos Aires with a major in printmaking. Her interest drove her to research the relationship between art and ritual as her main focus. After actively teaching and exhibiting her work in Argentina she moved to Canada where she settled in 2009. She has attended residencies and had exhibitions at The Hammock Residency, The Banff Centre for the Arts, The STAG and Shudder Gallery. Her work has been shown in Argentina, Mexico, USA and Canada.