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Arlene Mejorado

Photographer

www.amejorado.com

Breathing Exteriors

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Location: Los Angeles, California

Biography: Arlene Mejorado is a first-generation, transnational lens-based artist from Los Angeles, California working with analog and digital photography, video, and installations. She experiments with documentary practices, depicting truths that... MORE

Beauty School, Panorama City, C...he same time she was enrolled.

Beauty School, Panorama City, Calif. Inkjet print. A photograph of my mother is installed in front of a vacant business that was once Marinello's Beauty School where she was a student in the 1990's. The archival image was made around the same time she was enrolled.

Living Room Dancing, 2021, Pano...jects to help prop the banner.

Living Room Dancing, 2021, Panorama City, Calif. Inkjet print.
This image contains a photograph of a new year's eve party in 1995 where we as children danced in the living room and my grandmother appears at the edge of the photograph. The banner was installed in my uncle's backyard using found objects to help prop the banner.

My Cousin Ana’s Apart...f memories” for her.

My Cousin Ana’s Apartment, 2021, Winnetka, Calif. Inkjet print.
The image that hangs is of my cousin Ana, among the youngest in my family to migrate to the U.S. and the first girl in my family to experience teenage life in Los Angeles. She described this apartment complex where she grew up as a place representing “a lot of memories” for her.

Winter Feast, Reseda, Calif. In...e where this event took place.

Winter Feast, Reseda, Calif. Inkjet print,
Within the banner is an image of one of the first Thanksgiving dinners my family celebrated in 1991 under a tarped patio. The image is installed on the fence pertaining to the home where this event took place.

Children’s Party, 202... to the home was not possible.

Children’s Party, 2021, Reseda, Calif. Inkjet print.
This photograph contains a banner of an image of children in my family breaking a birthday pinata in 1994 in my aunt´s yard while my aunt holds a point-and-shoot film camera up to her face. The banner is installed in the alleyway behind the home as access to the home was not possible.

My Mother Madonna, 2020, Reseda...re she was living at the time.

My Mother Madonna, 2020, Reseda, Calif. Inkjet print.
This image contains a photograph of my mother made in 1992, 4 years after arriving in the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico, where she described herself as aspiring to dress as the artist and entertainer, Madonna. The photograph was made in the backyard of this home where she was living at the time.

Swimming Pool Self Portrait, 20...led in an empty swimming pool.

Swimming Pool Self Portrait, 2021, North Hills, Calif. Inkjet print.
A photograph of myself swimming in the early 1990´s in the first apartment complex that I lived in is enlarged as a banner and installed in an empty swimming pool.

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Public Story

Breathing Exteriors

Copyright Arlene Mejorado 2024

Updated Feb 2021

Topics Fine Art, Photography

Summary

Breathing Exteriors: (re)Placements of Memory is a series of vinyl banner installations photographed as landscapes in various San Fernando Valley locations within Los Angeles, California in 2020-2021. Each banner is an enlarged photograph from my family archives and it is selected and hung where the memory originated, bringing the archive to the place it originates, or where the photograph was made.