Jonathan Perez with
Ari Temkin, Emily Silverio-Williams, Heather Kostrna, Jennifer Hudock, L'nique Noel, Maria Daniela Maldonado, Tara Remmen
Ari Temkin, Emily Silverio-Williams, Heather Kostrna, Jennifer Hudock, L'nique Noel, Maria Daniela Maldonado, Tara Remmen
You Are Here, 2021 - Coral Gables Museum: 285 Aragon Ave. (east side)
Project Description
As a permanent digital arts faculty member of the Art & Art History Department at FIU, Jonathan along with undergraduate and graduate students Jennifer Hudock, Heather Kostrna, L’nique Noel, Maria Daniela Maldonado, Tara Remmen, Ari Temkin, Emily Silverio-Williams will create an ambitious project on the side of the Coral Gables Museum building. Department chair, David Chang, created a course specifically for Jonathan to teach with a focus on realizing an inclusive and historical look at the City for Illuminate Coral Gables. The beauty of this special course is that the students will have professional exhibition history, something extremely rare as an undergraduate or graduate art student.
The building facade will come alive through the use of video mapping and sound elements by the collective. At times, the original relief busts of two fireman and a family consisting of a mother, father, daughter, son and three pets will come alive at night and tell stories and share information about the Gables, her past and present, residents, and fascinating history. Washes of imagery will flood the wall throughout the evening.
This installation will be heartfelt, relevant, and another time capsule for the City to treasure. It will be accessible online with raw content and in the final edited and projected version.
You Are Here is offered as a way to think through the entangled connections between history, geology, ecology, and climate as they relate to the west-facing wall of what is currently called the Coral Gables Museum. We wanted to offer our collective perspective on the history of South Florida by tracing connections between seemingly disparate historical events. We wanted this piece to authentically reflect our individual skills and interests as artists. At the same time, it was important that these individual threads be tied together in such a way that our several individual points of view became one collective perspective. This video essay represents our collaborative research, reflection, interpretation, and above all, hope.
Assistant Teaching Professor
Jonathan Perez is a media artist whose works use sound and video to explore events and processes that are distributed across vast spatial and temporal scales. He creates single-channel works in addition to multi-channel sound and video installations. His videos and sculptures have previously been exhibited at The Boca Raton Museum of Art 2016 All Florida Invitational, Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia, Flux Factory in NYC, and Hallwalls Gallery in Buffalo. Perez is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Digital Arts in the Art + Art History department at Florida International University. He received his MFA in Art Video from Syracuse University in 2015.
FIU Art Students Bio
Undergraduate Student
Ari Temkin is a mixed media artist residing in Miami, Florida. He recently received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Studio Arts from Florida International University. The Americanized son of Jewish Uruguayan immigrants, his unique mixed cultural upbringing is echoed through his multi-faceted approach to artistic practice and medium. Ari utilizes photography, cartooning, video, and sculpture to critique the absurdity present throughout a culture built on the overconsumption of information. As an insider raised in the time of Internet-based Identity, he applies his expertise of the internet’s ever-developing international language to explore its consequences on the real world layered with a grim sense of humor.
Undergraduate Student
Emily Silverio-Williams is an artist studying under Florida International Universities’ Digital Arts program; she is proficient in drawing and is currently exploring video as an avenue of expression. She sees university as a space to strengthen her skills and broaden her horizons, allowing her to mold her artistic practice into new forms as she paves her path in the art world. Thematically, her works are driven by her interests in unpacking human connection to concepts of grief and femininity.
Graduate Student
Heather Kostrna is a MFA candidate at Florida International University. Previously, she attended Florida State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and a Master of Science in Art Education. She also attended the University of North Florida, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Artistically, Heather is interested in conveying daily mindfulness though her ceramic work and has a vested artistic interest in art and it’s connections to the environment.
Undergraduate Student
Jennifer Hudock is a graphic designer working and attending university in the South Florida area. She graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Art at Florida International University in 2020. Her skills encompass publication design, UI design, and mixed media.
Undergraduate Student
L’nique Noel is a student at Florida International University majoring in art, with minors in art history, anthropology, and sociology. She is primarily a painter, though she has additional interests in video art and film.
Undergraduate Student
Maria Daniela Maldonado is a student at Florida International University studying psychology and public health. She uses her interests in drawing, painting, and story-telling through experimental videos to understand the connection between art, healing, and health. She finds herself engaging in artistic activities, either as an observer of the creative efforts of others or as an initiator of her own efforts in order to understand herself and others. Her research interests include exploring the intricacies of artistic meaning in relation to the complexities of disease and wellness.
Undergraduate Student
Tara Remmen is an artist interested in digital media and animation, currently working on a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Media at Florida International University. With experience in pre-production in animation, she draws her inspiration from classical paintings and current animation series.