Future Bodies Symposium and Exhibition – Presenter Spotlight

Presenter: Estephania Gonzalez
Website: https://www.estephaniagonzalez.com
Interview by Paulina Velázquez Solís, Co-chair, New Media Caucus Communications Committee

Estephania Gonzalez is a multimedia artist from the Mexico and Iowa and she received
her MFA in Intermedia from Arizona State University. She also loves to cook, dance and
is a Zumba instructor! She is based out of Tempe Arizona, and she answered a few questions about their
participation in Future Bodies:

What brought you to the field of art and creativity?

Ever since I was little, I became really attracted to drawing. I was actively making art in middle
school and high school. I have a really distinct memory of the first time I saw Salvador Dali’s
“The Persistence of Memory” and being totally captivated by it, this work along with Frida
Kahlo’s works were catalysts that ignited my curiosity for the arts. As a child, my mom took my
sister and I to sewing classes and we would embroider with my grandmother when we were able
to visit each other. My mom was very supportive of my creative outlet and I pursued arts degrees
in my undergrad and graduate school careers.

What is your relationship with New Media?

New Media, in the general sense: My background as a performance artist brought me to working
with new media. I began recording my performances in landscapes and gathering video clips of
my surroundings. Without a live audience to perform for, video became my way of documenting
my artworks. I was introduced to Premiere Pro and I began experimenting with video and
installation. My work with video then led me to begin exploring special effects and basic
animations in After Effects.

Please tell us about the work you are presenting in Future Bodies

Huitzilopotchli is the second installment in my cosmology series. It is a visual narrative of a
celestial body who lands in northern Arizona and takes a reverse migration journey to the border
to be confronted with the harsh realities of these borderlands. Huitzilopotchli is the Mexica god
of War that also represents the south. The video explores the ecological, physical, and
psychological trauma that affects the land, animals, peoples and immigrants of the borderlands
caused by the erecting of the border wall and recent immigration policies. The work is based on
the idea that a war is being raged on the immigrants and land of the south, hence it’s connection to Huitzilopotchli. This video explores concepts of cleansing and healing rituals along the border
through performative actions, and pulls on the physics theory of quantum tunneling to imagine
ways to help heal the land.

What are you looking forward to during the symposium?
I am most looking forward to the presentations and learning about other people’s work and
research, hoping to make connections!

If you could be a body part, which part would you be?

I would be a hand or a butt. Hands create actions and I am mostly attracted to making forms
and movements with my hands. A butt is soft, and I think it would be fun to bounce around.