ANNA MARISA MARTINEZ
Brand Damaging
I am a classically trained painter who has spent the last ten years working as a retail visual merchandiser. This intimate relationship to visual literacy, through art and merchandising, has inspired my interest in how aesthetic hierarchies can influence human behavior. I use the strategies of hierarchy of color, balance of materials, figure ground relationships, and brand/label recognition. I intentionally use fashion magazine advertisements in this body of work. It is important to deconstruct these materials while letting them keep some of their original context. Through the acts of tearing, cutting, and destroying, I create a new image or space out of these fragments. I construct everything with careful consideration of viewership in much the same way as merchandising considers the consumer. However, in deconstructing these images, I want the viewer to control the meaning of the work instead of these strategies convincing them to buy into a certain lifestyle or reality.
