Amanda Martinez’s New Wave Inspired Sculptures at VICTORI + MO

The point of departure for Martinez’s latest sculptures began with her long-term fascination with the electronically-based, post-punk new wave music of the 1980’s. Martinez is fixated on the videos that accompanied the music of that era, particularly the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”, and the contrasting effects of the complex and serious abstraction of the music with the rather primitive, and at times nearly comical videos. In many ways, new wave depicted the juxtaposition of high and low culture, the decorative versus the functional, and the line between taste and class. Referencing her early days as a fledgling DJ, the works on view provide Martinez an opportunity to explore the concept of the remix, and the idea of technology altering the ‘original’, of varied influences associatively coming together to create a new original identity. In a world of previously emitted signals, what is the original and what is the remix?