CONSTANZA REHREN MARINCOVICH
I like to explore the realms of what is lost but not necessarily forgotten, rather, subjected to change and altered through trauma. In my life of nomadic instances, my personal identity has been modified culturally by the adaptation to my surroundings, thus, reshaping my experiences, social interactions, and values. Being raised with a culture but separated from it creates an immense sense of “false” nostalgia, and the need for pertinence within a society. My current work is a documentation of my discovery and perception of cultural identity; my observations upon traveling and living in my native home with its dying fervor, social struggles, the loss of cultural identity and/or the formation of a new one due to mass globalization, as well as humans’ deterrence from nature. I enjoy textile because it is something ancient and man-made that can tell a story. By painting textile, I am illustrating my time through patterns and colors, and rejecting the notion of “craft” as being basic, bringing it into an art historical context. Through textile, I am transported to another time, and I believe by looking at history we can better understand ourselves today.
ABOUT
Constanza Rehren is painter, illustrator and mixed media artist from Santiago, Chile. Her work examines matters of cultural adaptation due to globalization and its impact on self and social identity. She utilizes textile and nostalgic imagery to challenge our perception of tradition and create a visual dialogue between the old and new. She is highly interested in nature conservancy, indigenous rights, feminism, and the student youth movements of Latin America. Her work has been exhibited in San Francisco. She graduated from San Francisco Art Institute pursuing her Bachelors of Fine Arts. She wants to expand her knowledge by doing field studies of craft making worldwide. She hopes by being more immersed in the culture she can educate the public of the importance of collectivism as seen in ancient cultures and nature through her artwork. She currently resides in Bologna, Italy.