Rodríguez was born on April 28, 1957, inPlacetas, Cuba, just prior to theCuban Revolution. She emigrated with her family to the United States by way of Spain in 1963 at the age of six and grew up in an immigrant, working-class family in the United States. Rodriguez became interested in16mm film making while studying journalism atBoston University from 1975 to 1978.[1] From the beginning of her filmmaking career, she was drawn to experimental genres, inspired in the hand-crafted work ofLen Lye,Stan Brakhage andNorman McLaren.[2]
In 1978 Rodríguez moved to California and studied with the iconic lesbian-feminist experimental filmmakerBarbara Hammer who was teaching a workshop at the Los AngelesWoman's Building at the time. Rodríguez also studied withWarren Sonbert another experimental filmmaker, who was teaching at theSan Francisco Art Institute and invited her to audit his class. Following 10 years of independent study, Rodríguez earned a B.A. in Film Production fromSan Francisco State University School of Creative Arts in 1988, studying under the guidance of such visionary experimentalists asTrinh T. Minh-ha andMarlon Riggs.[3] Rodríguez's practice of manually altering 16mm film includes scratching into the emulsion to enhance or dialogue with the image already printed on the film. The artist also hand-colors and paints on film using inks and dyes.[4]
Her use of appropriated materials turns up in her remakes of commercials and other moving image collage pieces. She is frequently recycles oldcelluloid footage into new works and experiments with damaged cameras and equipment, expired film stocks andfound footage.[5]
Among her earliest influences, and one that she attributes with having inspired the spiritual and aesthetic direction of her work, isMaya Deren an experimental filmmaker who worked in the United States during the 1940s and 50s. Another artist that Rodríguez claims as an inspiration is the "father of video art"Nam June Paik.[5] Rodriguez's more contemporary influences includeIsaac Julien,Pipilotti Rist,Lorna Simpson andBill Viola.
Rodríguez's hand-crafting techniques create very vivid and subliminal effects that speak to the human subconscious. Her work affects the subconscious mind by using the same visual tactics used in advertising and mass media. An open bisexual,[6] frequently engages sexually explicit themes in her work. Rodriguez is a rape survivor and feminist activist, practicing a form ofpublic installations that she terms "Artivism," a practice she has been engaging in since the 1980s.[7] Among the many awards and recognition she has received for her work, she won the 2009 FAN Knight New Work Award in the amount of $50,000 for her projectElusive Landscape that involved multiple hand-crafted 16mm film projections exhibited in outdoor locations across the city of Miami and projected directly into trees and foliage. Rodriguez's works have been exhibited internationally in film festivals, museums, galleries, TV, public outdoor installations and multimedia performances. Known for her many multidisciplinary collaborations, Rodriguez has worked on projects with a variety of international artists. Her public installations create a sense of community that brings many people together for public and communal view.[8]
Rodríguez's work has received critical attention from scholars interested in found footage and cinematic appropriation,[9] Afrosurrealism,[10] and Latino media arts.[11] Her work has also received sustained critical attention by her sister, Juana María Rodríguez, a professor of Gender and Women's Studies atUC Berkeley who writes extensively about several of her films in the bookSexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings.[6] Stills from Rodríguez's film,XXX, are featured on the cover.
^Baron, Jaimie. “Inappropriate Bodies: Contemporary Filmmakers Challenging Gender Constructions through Appropriation.” UCLA Center for the Study of Women, November 1, 2009.http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7mw7m95b.
^Francis, Terri. “Close-Up Gallery: The Afrosurrealist Film Society.” Black Camera 5, no. 1 (2013): 209–19.
^Noriega, Chon A., and Ana M. López. The Ethnic Eye: Latino Media Arts. U of Minnesota Press, n.d.
