[digital]
[ installation]
[ paintings]
[ cv]
[ blog]
[ links]
[ contact]
 |
computer print, 24" x 36"
miguel cortez, 2007
 |
Recycle your ideas #6
computer print, 24" x 36"
miguel cortez, 2007
see the ongoing art series/project here: http://recycle-ideas.blogspot.com/
 |
 |
 |
computer prints with found object
Miguel Cortez, 2007
In my quest to compare shapes and forms that are minute and microscopic I came across a found street object(mounted on wall) with intricate linear patterns that resembled a street map viewed from above. This inspired me to sketch it and I then transferred it to the computer and traced it.This reminded me of the Chaos Theory and Fractals which says that everything is connected to each other from the smallest of atoms/energy/strings to universes and at that different levels forms and shapes seem to repeat themselves. For example moss on the ground may look like an aerial view of a huge forest landscape.
 |
braille engraved plastic sign
2007
 |
Exist Within Your Timeline #2
heat embossed belts and wallet
Miguel Cortez, 2007
Series statement
I've always wondered about humanity's never ending quest to define existence throughout the ages via religion or philosophy and I started asking myself these questions back in May: Where was I before I was born? We are born on such a year and then die on such a year in linear time. Did our consciousness/soul exist before and will it exist after? Or are we limited to exist just in our designated timeline? From these questions arose this series of artwork.
One is a plastic sign, similar to signs you may see in buildings that inform and guide you. The second is poking fun at consumerism and products; How a phrase or brand impulses you to buy certain things. And the third is a simple computer animation which uses technology to blast a message that is forever distorted on screen.
 |
Digital print, dimensions variable
March 2007
 |
Digital print, dimensions variable
March 2007
 |
 |
computer print, dimensions variable
Miguel Cortez, 2007
Jeevatma is the concept of the "soul" in the Ayyavazhi religion of South India. I came across this while researching for this series which takes the idea of empathy a step further by trying to imagine our consciousness jumping/leaping from one person to another. Just like accessing information from different computers, how would it feel to enter someone else's body and have access to their memories, feelings, etc..?
Dream: September 2006
Video DVD
Miguel Cortez, 2006
"I woke up today at about 5am with a weird vivid dream. In the dream I was at work and our building was going thru some evacuation procedure so since I work on the 5th floor we had to walk down the stairs but when we got to the 3rd floor a group of us noticed the stairway and floor had changed since the last time we walked down. Someone said it was because of the new Indian owners and it had to do with Bollywood. So we had to go down a different route and upon walking thru some corridors and down more stairs we came across this huge room; the first floor I assume. And in this room there were people sleeping but sleeping stacked on top of each other; inside mounds of earth, like mini-hills and their bodies were inside except for the head and one on top of another with some space in between each. And on the floor was about 2 feet of water with feces and urine, so in order to get to the exit we had to walk thru it. And when I walked several feet I woke up...looked at my cell phone, four fifty eight am."
 |
Recycle your ideas #1
edition of 25 bumper stickers
miguel cortez, 2006
 |
 |
Recycle your ideas #2
Flash web document
miguel cortez, 2006
 |
Recycle your ideas #3
computer drawing/print
miguel cortez, 2006
art statement:
Recycling is used to describe a series of activities that includes collecting recyclable materials that would otherwise be considered waste, sorting and processing recyclables into raw materials and manufacturing the raw materials into either making the same product(closed loop) or new products(open loop). An example of open-loop recycling is using plastic bottles to make pipes. Artists use these processes all the time. Some come up with an idea and create work using a certain style/media and repeat this for a long time to please his/her commercial gallery/collectors(this is closed loop recycling).While others may gather old ideas, twist and turn them, throw them up in the air and some new concept pops up(open loop recycling).
Diverseworks in Houston is having a benefit to raise funds in July. I was invited and this is the print that I will donate.
DiverseWorks is a non-profit art center dedicated to presenting new visual, performing, and literary art. DiverseWorks is a place where the process of creating art is valued and where artists can test new ideas in the public arena. By encouraging the investigation of current artistic, cultural and social issues, DiverseWorks builds, educates, and sustains audiences for contemporary art.
see the ongoing art series/project here: http://recycle-ideas.blogspot.com/
bell
digital print, dimensions variable
Miguel Cortez, 2006
 |
Pilsen Telenovela
digital print
Miguel Cortez, 2006
This print
consist of overly-dramatic fake events/actions that are suppossed to mock
scenes from
an imaginary spanish "novela" taking
place in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Using a high resolution digital camera,
I posed people in carefully planned and scripted situations. An installation
of these prints were shown at Glass
Curtain Gallery in Chicago.
Telenovelas
have a history that goes back to the 1950s in Latin America. They are usually
targeted to the working class(hence the popularity) and some of the stereotypical
plots are often based on stories dealing with class issues such as about
a poor girl who falls in love with a rich man and whose family does not understand
her. While some others deal with teen isues and the problems of youth and
growing up. Most of the actors are usually white latinos playing working
class people but for this project the people who I shot visually look mestizo
and resemble more what the "telenovela's" audience is.
 |
Digital print (36" x 54")
Miguel Cortez, 2006
Chicago has been going through many transformations the past 30 years. It
is going through a reversal of the past american dream(white middle class)
to live in the suburbs with your white picket fence and 2.5 kids while the
people of color and lower class stayed within their boundaries in the inner-city.
What has been happening now is that the people of color and lower class have
been slowly displaced away from anywhere that is close to the lake. They
are being pushed outwards and south. They are promised better housing in
return for the land, but what are they really getting?...
This print will be shown
in a group show april 2006 entitled "Entorno:
Grass grows greener on the other side:
and this print was reviewed in ArtUS Magazine out of California. See a PDF here
 |
lies that Bill Gates told me
digital print
2005 miguel cortez
This is a digital print installation which took place in Melbourne Australia August 2005. The manipulated digital work is of a photograph of Bill Gates suppossedly during a traffic violation circa late 1970s.
 |
 |
Tribute
digital print on canvas 24" x 24" and 500 postcards
2005 miguel cortez
This piece is dedicated Carlos Koyokuikatl Cortez, artist, activist and poet who died earlier this year. Aside from the digital print there will be a limited edition of 500 postcards of the image with one of his poems on the back. These cards will be available fall 2005 and will be distributed for free at the Mexican Fine Arts Center in Chicago during their Day of the Dead art exhibition.
 |
 |
workstation 1 and 2
digital prints (36" x 54")
2005 miguel cortez
This series of 2 digital prints are portraits of two early computer systems. Workstation 1 is Digital Equipment Corporation's first computer:the PDP-1, intruduced in the early 1960s. The computer's memory system used 24 magnetic tape transports to hold from 4096 to 65,536 words in 18 bits each. Workstation 2 is DEC's first 36-bit computer done in 1964 and the 23 that were sold were mainly used for scientific computing at various universities.
portrait of my toe fungus before trimming it... and after a few drops of blood fell on the floor, a flag appeared
digital print
2004 miguel cortez
war criminal part 2
100 stickers pasted all over Detroit, Michigan
public art project
2004 miguel cortez
" Pilsen for sale"100 stickers pasted all over Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood
2004 Miguel Cortez
The inspiration for this sticker came about when I was reading an article regarding the plan by the Concord Homes Inc.'s (with the support of Alderman Danny Solis) to build a a high-end housing project from 16th street to 18th street and Peoria Avenue. Specifically, this developer wanted to create a residential community comprised of thirteen buildings containing a total of 132 residential condominium dwelling units. Each dwelling would have included two bedrooms and two baths running from $280,000 and up. The organization Pilsen Alliance created a coalition of community organizations and community residents to oppose the project. Over 200 community residents were mobilized in a short period of time to advocate against the project at a community meeting held by Alderman Danny Solis and Concord Homes. Currently, the project is "dead" due to the organizing of the community against the project. It was an historic victory for a community that is feeling development pressures from all sides in the neighborhood.
empathy
digital print
2004 miguel cortez
empathy
: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.
Lately I have been fascinated by the concept of empathy- constantly imagining how it would feel to experience other people's experiences and feelings during various minute everyday situations, ie., people at restaurants or on the street, what is going through their heads as they are crossing the street or having coffee and reading a newspaper. I look at old photographs and try to imagine what these people were going through, what they may have been thinking at the second this photograph was taken, knowing that what I am looking at could be the only record of their existence.
So I take these feelings/emotions and try to create art in such a way that it not only is an abstract series of works but it would also be a record of my meditative experiences.
the only bush i trust is my own
200 stickers pasted all over Chicago
public art project
2003 miguel cortez