Home Is Where the Art Is: Rita Jimenez

Rita Jimenez is a multimedia light-based artist from Jersey City, New Jersey. She documents light play and manipulation through photography and video. Video projections are often combined with other types of media and materials such as mirrors, prisms, and diffracted film. In the physical or virtual world, she aims to have viewers “escape” into a different world. She draws inspiration from the sublime, the surreal and the ethereal. Engaging social media, her newest project “Portals” are found stock images collaged with surreal video imagery. The videos are her own documented light footage of projections, water, and diffracted light. The found images are devoid of people, like empty hotel rooms or deserts. She is creating a narrative that magical worlds exist in forgotten, abandoned spaces. She has a BFA in photography and an MFA in Light Media from New Jersey City University. She has exhibited in Jersey City, New York City, and Barcelona.

JERSEY CITY, NJ- Recent MFA recipient and multimedia light-based artist Rita Jimenez is finding a new creative balance as she adjusts to social distancing and life after graduation:

Due to the pandemic, I have been laid off from a part time job. I recently became an MFA graduate so I also lost my studio space. Being a light artist, I work mainly with projections and light reflective materials - all of which have been cramped into my small bedroom. I share an apartment with two other roommates so I have to make due of my bedroom space, especially at night with most things can be blocked out with a projection or backdrop.

It's a very interesting time to be creating for me - on the one hand I have all the time in the world now to start different projects. At the same time, it doesn't feel meaningful with all the pain around us. I almost feel as if I'm creating on autopilot.

That being said, I am getting a lot done and seeing what I enjoy making the most - what kind of work makes me feel alive and happy. I think because of the state of being at home, my work has taken on a theme of escape. Portals, if you will - imagery that engages my viewers especially to an imaginative state.

She’s taking this unprecedented moment of transition as an opportunity to explore creatively:

There's definitely a LOT of play involved, mainly because I have the time and freedom to do so. Since undergrad then later MFA it was always a project deadline for a class, or an exhibit, or a commissioned visual.. now it's really just what I want to do, with the materials I have already, and all the many different things I can do with it.

Interestingly enough, being confined to just my room, I get inspired about the items in [it] - little trinkets, or toys. In a way, I've resorted to feeling like a kid at playtime. Before I start working on something, it's almost like I consult my inner child. I have little set ups of prisms, crystals, mirrors, kaleidoscopes. I acquired a bubble gun... [and] even some street chalk.

Rita also finds herself revisiting her roots in photography, as well exploring new mixed media approaches that she felt were less conducive to her former studio:

 I started with photography as an art student, but felt compelled to take on bigger mediums later as an artist because I had the space - I wanted to think more 3-dimensional. However, I think I'm actually going back to photography, and exploring things that I didn't feel were "worth" getting into - like drawing on negatives.

I take out my instant camera weekly and shoot multi exposures to capture an all encompassing moment. I think next I'll play with projecting negatives or transparencies on my overhead projector, or even project the drawn negative video. Even the "portals" I make have a foreground of a still image. Sometimes a stock image, other times a photo I'll take on a social distancing walk.

I'm combining a lot of different elements. Like still image and video, objects and projection, photographic images and materials like fabric (I just bought inkjet fabric that I may use to make an installation.) Also, a LOT of collage journaling!

There are almost no barriers right now, anything goes.

To learn more about Rita Jimenez’s work, visit her website www.ritajimenez.com or follow her on Instagram @iritadescence