Things About To Explode With Floria González
Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
Floria González is a Mexican visual artist and producer originally from Monterrey. She found in photography, video art, performance and installation, her own way of capturing fantastic scenes and characters. Floria produces and directs music videos, where she explores the possibility of visually altering realities.
Recently she’s been playing with feelings of fear and uncertainty in relation to the information that is presented to us by the media. Floria is reinventing herself by experimenting with new social media tools such as the Instagram filters, where she illustrates the feelings of anxiety and panic that we have all been experiencing during quarantine.
We talked with Floria about the psychological impacts of social media and the launching of her latest exhibition “Things About to Explode”, presented during her latest collective exhibition “New ___ On The Block Vol. 3” in Mexico City.
Photo: Napoleon Habeica @napoleonhabeica
Karen: What kind of dialogues do you like to develop through your work?
Floria: My work is mostly a personal spiritual journey. The dialogues are the thoughts that I have on different topics that I want to explore during my creative process.
K: What stimulates your imagination?
F: Music, books, paintings, photography, films, nature, people and concepts of life, consciousness, time, death, science and whatever is new on the block.
K: Could you tell us more about the process you went through personally to create your latest video/installation “Things About to Explode”?
F: I had the space to do a new installation and I started with a painting featuring a girl standing outside a Texan gas station, lighting a cigarette. The day I started the painting I listened to Lykke Li’s version of “I will survive” and thought that she changed the whole meaning of the song making it special for these times. She talks about fears and tells them to walk out the door. It was pretty much what I was feeling, so I listened to the song on repeat over and over until I finished the painting. Then I decided to use it on the video. I created four digital face masks for my character to be used on Instagram. This girl (in the video) is trying to escape from the virtual world we have been forced to live in because of the quarantine. I had to film everything with my big Sony, edit the video and record it again via Instagram on my computer monitor so I could get the digital mask on the girl.
K: In this same installation, you also illustrate the manipulation of social networks as a sort of extension of people’s utopian ideals. What are your thoughts on this?
F: I see people now with new found identities, they become real when we look at them on screen but, what happens when you don’t have the new filter in your face? I find this interesting and scary at the same time. We must learn to use new technologies with caution and balance.
K: “Things About to Explode” showcases two paintings that talk about suicide. Do you think art can help people with mental health disorders?
F: It’s more what the character is feeling on the inside. The spiritual process she is going through and the fire represents a new beginning, breaking from the fear that has been supplanted through social media. Although I play with the idea of death with the words “Game Over” my thinking process was that if we are living in a simulated reality, then the possibility of death means game over and a restart in a new game.
Photo: Courtesy of Instagram @floriagonzalez
K: You are a multidisciplinary artist which means that you are not attached to a certain technique or visual concept. What significant additions are gained by using different new mediums?
F: Every medium has its own magic. With painting I have the possibility of creating in the moment and with no limits in imagination or budget. I also have the opportunity to be in trance for many hours alone, listening to music, lost in colors and texture. It is a beautiful feeling. With photography, film and installation I get to build a new reality distorting what already exists, which gives me much pleasure imagining the set, costumes and characters for my story. I love to have fun with my friends and colleagues while producing the work.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist. Karina Preciado, Floria González and Julia Orduña.
K: Could you share with us the story behind your new series of paintings “The End Of The World”?
F: Little deaths, the evolution of the mind and spirit. Our identity is based on our past, but we are not that idea of ourselves, we are pure consciousness. Making the decision to break a pattern is big and explosive like a meteor. You have to destroy everything to start over, with fewer limits in mind and heart. Time in this dimension passes very quickly and we lose ourselves in the past forgetting to be present. The possibility of the unexpected gives us life and perceptual illusion.
K: If you had the opportunity to draw attention to one “generational concern” what would this be? F: To get lost in virtual reality and not enjoy life. To not be present.