ARTIST STATEMENT
“We Value Your Business” offers what appear to be typical banking ads in the form of eight poster-sized images. The imagery was sourced from online banking ads, featuring happy, relaxed people – a couple working on a laptop, a woman smiling down at her cell phone, family and friends at festive gatherings, etc., then digitally altered and expanded to fit the 16″ x 24″ aspect ratio. A large, ad-type slogan is included on each piece. Smaller text is also offered.
Closer inspection reveals information of an unexpected nature: statistics on the historical rise of rent and mortgage cost in cities nationwide; descriptions of systemic racial injustice within the housing market; a historical account of the progression of homelessness in the U.S.; income inequity ranging from declining salaries to rising housing cost-to-income ratios; the additional challenges women face when attempting to purchase a home. Two of the pieces include her own, personal narrative related to the speculative real estate market, which help reveal her investment in this subject. A third offers the lyrics and history of the song, “We’re in the Money,” with the final piece offering solutions.
The panels were printed using the metal, dye sublimation process. They include an under-layer of pastel hues (different for each panel), which stand in stark contrast to the grim information provided and the cold metal surface beneath. The series includes an optional sound piece, an instrumental version of “We’re in the Money” that plays softly from an unseen speaker, like a subliminal message.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Valerie Mendoza is an international lens-based installation artist, writer, and educator. Her work has been exhibited in France, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, and venues throughout the United States. Her practice mines the intersections between history, memory, language, and media, where they are impacted and shaped by institutional power structures. Combining photographs, video, audio, objects, personal narrative, and various forms of information, her immersive installations create a cross-disciplinary dialogue between disparate sources to interrogate cultural assumptions. Recent work falls within the realm of social practice. While much of her work examines contemporary and historical circumstances and events, the source of her inspiration is consistently rooted in personal experience. Mendoza is based in the San Francisco Bay Area where she is also an Associate Professor at San José State University.
Affordable housing, in the U.S. and abroad, has been the focus of Mendoza’s research for more than ten years. When experienced in isolation, lack of affordable housing may represent a personal failure to those who face the challenge of securing an affordable place to live. When considered on a national or global scale, it becomes clear that, far from an issue of personal success or failure, this is a world-wide phenomenon that should be attributed to other factors such as the speculative real estate market, gentrification, “touristification,” and the absence of meaningful government oversight. Though housing should be considered a basic, human right, all too often it becomes a game of speculation for those who can afford to play. https://www.valeriemendoza.com/about-om
© Valerie Mendoza