OFM_719 Getting Personal - FINAL_DEPT 6 / 24 / 19 10 : 27 AM Page 1 GETTING PERSONAL Winner of the Orlando Museum of Art’s Florida Prize in Contemporary Art , Edison Peñafiel on why he uses multimedia installations , how migrating to the United States has shaped his outlook and what he’s working on next . enrolled in an elective photography class with 1 . Just being included in the Florida Prize in ideas , but through multimedia installation , I Teresa Diehl , an amazing artist and professor . Contemporary Art exhibition at the Orlando am able to create this push and pull with the I struggled in her class , but she saw my poten - Museum of Art ( OMA ) , with all the artists and composing elements , such as 2D images inter - tial and pushed me to follow it . After that their works , is a great achievement . acting with 3D objects in space , and the ele - And being class I was engaged back into art in a more ment of time in video brings the idea of 4D selected for the prize speaks so much about serious way . I did four semesters of photog - into the piece . All these elements compose the the work that I am creating . Sometimes you raphy with her and here I am . experiences of our everyday life , so I want the need that assurance that you are making it viewer to have an as close as possible similar right to keep going forward . experience though the surreal installation and 8 . If I am not physically creating something become part of the work while they view it . or exhibiting , I am constantly thinking about 2 . The work I have on display at the OMA , in the next idea . general , deals with ideas of history , cycles and It just happens unconsciously . perpetuity . I like to spend time with family and close You can see that in both installa - 5 . I was born in Ecuador and reside in the friends but somehow all of it ends up in con - tions Ni Aquí , Ni Allá and Sempiterno — the greater Fort Lauderdale area . I see my work versations about art or politics , so it just finds characters are bound to perform perpetually being affected by a collection of personal and its way back into work mode . the same action repeatedly , as a metaphor for collective experiences , and I think moving history repeating itself and as reflection of cur - from Ecuador to the U.S . has had an impact rent global issues and the system we live in . on my work . I see my migrant experience 9 . Right now , I am working on some ideas to repeated by newcomers over and over again , bring my work out of the gallery / museum and I resonate and relate to it , not by being space and into the public area . 3 . My work is a reaction to the bombardment There are tech - only a personal experience , but the experience of information that the media — TV and nical issues to resolve , and consideration for of a community . This has affected the way I internet — has put us through . mediums that will work better outdoors , but I feel it has see and the language I use in my work . now it is a work in progress . made us become desensitized about the real issues happening in our communities and the world . I feel we , as a society , care about it for 6 . Two artists I respect and who I think are 10 . People should come see all the work cur - a few days , or even a week , and then we forget important to the world are Doris Salcedo and rently on display for the Florida Prize in by passing to the new thing . Ai Weiwei Contemporary Art at OMA for several rea - for their commitment to their sons . voices , ideas and ideals as artists , which goes First , the selection of artists and works beyond the personal benefit . They have was very well thought out and put together by 4 . I work primarily in multimedia installa - powerful works that question and open the OMA curators Coralie Claeysen - Gleyzon and tions . I have tried other mediums to carry my conversation about specific Hansen Mulford . I really enjoy the subtle socio - political events that res - connections between each of the works on onate throughout the world . display transitioning between the macro and the micro , from social issues to the individual , the material and architectural to the spiritual 7 . As a kid I would draw , try and natural , all weaved and interconnected to to replicate paintings and work give the viewer a whole experience of our - with pre - fabricated clay pieces selves as individuals and as a collective . And with my mother . I had graphic second , the exhibition displays works by 10 design lessons by my sisters progressive and exciting emerging and mid - and guitar lessons during my career artists who are producing relevant teens . After migrating to the work , so people should come and see what it U.S . and enrolling in Broward Ni Aquí , Ni Allá at the is being created in Florida today . College as a business major , I Orlando Museum of Art 8 ORLANDO FAMILY july 2019 ORLANDOFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM