Presented By Dustin Rivera
Returning Home (2020) Interactive Digital Space Price (of code) upon Inquiry Conceived out of a desire for validation, Returning Home (2020) seeks to validate my lived childhood experience of returning home on the weekends. It tries to replicate the feeling, not so much an accurate depiction, referencing our own subjective memory and furthermore, our subjective experience. As you traverse this digital landscape you find artifacts of 3D models of games from the early 2000’s. Here they string together their iconic look and also evoke a sense of nostalgia. This nostalgia is accessible and juxtaposes the specific type of nostalgia that is present in the huge monolithic pictures surrounding the landscape. They sit, one at each cardinal position, reminiscent of a compass, reminding us of this specific moment, this geographical digital landscape. Finally, the poem resting in front of you acts as a lament. A soliloquy of loss and the life I’ve left behind. A state of irony / tragedy as I’ve come to recognize that my memory is forever altered with age and reflection, something Returning home replicates with its limited and shallow space should the viewer seek it out, they would find how flimsy each and every artifact is.
Diego Keen
He/Him
Diego is a multi talented individual who has put art first his entire life. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, He would routinely be driven to Las Vegas New Mexico every weekend by his grandmother to stay with her and his father. It’s through these car rides, Diego learned the meaning of the word enchantment as he would be told stories about the indigineous natives that used to live across the countryside
Years later, Diego is still exploring the meaning of the word enchantment as well as nostalgia for a time that has long past. Blending his physical memories with that of digital space, Diego seeks to create a world that can exist past his own mortality while somehow retaining that sense of nostalgia. His most recent work for the Albatross project is the latest attempt to bridge that concept. Using 3D assets from nostalgic games he used as a child with monolithic pictures of his hometown, Diego is once again trying to preserve the essence of his childhood.
Dustin Rivera
I’m Dustin Rivera! I’m a transmasc, Puerto Rican artist who was born in the Bronx and resides in Portland, Oregon as well as Ocala, Florida. After graduating from Trinity Catholic High School I drove my way across the country so I could attend the Pacific Northwest College of Art and procure my BFA. Working mainly in photography, I also venture into other mediums such as writing, painting, and drawing. I focus on topics such as gender, mental health, memory, social justice, childhood, fear, media, nature, and more. I am going into the second semester of my junior year at PNCA in 2021, and will start my senior year that fall. I’m taking classes I’m very interested in, and will be posting all the stuff I’ve done and will be doing on my social media. If you’re interested in seeing some of my art, you can follow me on Instagram @dustinriveraart ( instagram.com/dustinriveraart )