Fuera de Foco

In a world saturated with digital images, Rodrigo Méndez presents "Fuera de Foco", an exhibition that explores our relationship with images and technology through the study of the pixel, the smallest unit of the digital image. His approach originated during his studies in Fine Arts when, while working with grids, his myopia led him to reinterpret the way he represented images. Méndez reduces the resolution of the image by manipulating the size and texture of the pixel. His works feature grids of color in varying dimensions, with blurred edges that resemble the way memories emerge from the subconscious: indistinct yet tangible. The works emphasize the beauty of the handmade gesture and of imperfection, allowing every trace of the creative process to remain visible. His pixelated paintings portray intimate and fleeting moments: airplanes and goldfish that fascinate his daughter during her childhood, a woman hanging laundry outside her window, and figures Rodrigo observes in solitude throughout the day. Neither the works nor their subjects are ever presented explicitly. Instead, they invite viewers to pause, to observe them from different distances, and even to use their phone cameras, creating a dynamic in which the image is revealed only through the viewer and their interaction with it. Méndez’s works offer a moment of respite from visual saturation, while also carrying a broader meaning that becomes evident in Seraphim, the work that concludes the exhibition. A suspended cube composed of six pixelated eyes watches us, representing the biblical angel, the one who sees all. The piece evokes Foucault’s panopticon and the contemporary forms of surveillance that have emerged through the digitalization of our reality. In many traditions, God has been conceived as the all-seeing being. Today, however, it is technology, easily manipulated, that has enabled a state of constant observation for everyone. In Fuera de Foco, we discover that it is not only the artworks that are blurred, but also our own perception of reality. The exhibition invites us to question our relationship with technology and to consider how we choose to inhabit this digital age. The decision is still in our hands. -Isabella Pirro, Senior Director of Galería Habitante