Liliana Marquez displays her “Re-Pop” show at Gallery 263 in Cambridge.
Multimedia artist Liliana Marquez doesn’t believe in waste.
Growing up in Venezuela, she saw an explosion of construction and consumerism among the wealthy that left wasted resources at every turn. “I saw things being thrown in the trash, and thought, ‘I can do everything with these materials,’” she says. Now a Jamaica Plain resident, Marquez uses waste to create eco-artworks.
In her recent “Re-Pop” show at Gallery 263 in Cambridge, Marquez used sample materials from construction projects to create textural wall pieces. These are items like paint color cards or samples of tiles and linoleum. Often after colors and patterns are considered, the samples are disposed of. Marquez finds a new purpose for them.
“When you come to my studio you don’t see paint, because I use everything around me,” says Marquez. “When you go to Home Depot and pick up colors, don’t trash that.”
Marquez’s style intentionally mimics the pop art boom of the 1950s. In utilizing this aesthetic with leftover commercial materials, Marquez identifies that era as the beginning of a toxic culture of mass production and consumerism. What was new, exciting, and not yet identified as bad for the environment in the ’50s, now is inexcusable. “Mass pollution is a big problem, but you can go against it,” says Marquez. “It’s not garbage — it’s materials.”
Even in her non-artistic life, Marquez is focused on preventing waste. At her day job at a paper product company, there often are misprints or incorrect orders. Instead of allowing the company to trash these products, Marquez donates them to local schools and libraries. Not only is this a productive use of resources, it educates children about reusing and recycling.
In addition to promoting the conscious use of materials, Marquez’s work critiques our culture of excessive consumerism. In Venezuela, she saw the wealthy waste while the lower classes suffered, and here, the same patterns exist. Construction crews work day and night to build high-rise luxury housing while the homeless population grows. The artist recounts her amusement when she moved into a new condo and found that the key fob was made of the same material as her artwork.
Marquez encourages viewers to touch and engage with her work, recognizing the materials from their original purpose and thinking about them in a new way. She hopes to exhibit “Re-Pop” around the city, but in the meantime she accepts visitors at her Brockton studio.
ON THE WEB
To See more of Marquez’s work, visit: www.lilimarq.com
