Art: ‘Iridescent Exit’ by Jessica Miguel Mateo

JESSICA MIGUEL MATEO
Iridescent Exit
2nd PLACE ART (TIE)
Mixed Media Installation
12th Grade, ÁnimoJackie Robinson
Guiding Teacher: Rachel Kopera

Jessica Miguel Mateo: Artist Statement

Iridescent Exit is an experiential installation art piece constructed of recycled tech
pieces, wood, canvas, wire, glue, and deconstructed chrome books. The viewer is meant to
immerse themselves by witnessing how sunlight reflects inside of the 3D sculpture. The first
read of “Iridescent Exit,” without reflected rainbow light, shows
technology robbing us of significant human experiences such as birthdays, eye contact, and
love. I added expressive bold brush strokes to create convergence towards the central figure
getting lost in the crazy world of technology. The glued tech parts show how tech invades a
human’s thoughts and pulls them from their loved ones.
The second read, however, shows how humans can win the battle of machines: by
putting tech in its place and using it to create a story of humans winning, represented by the
traveling rainbow light, created by taped lcds extracted from deconstructed Chromebooks.
With the help of my teachers, and the taped together LCDs we created a reflector and
harnessed the sun. The result was rainbows on my painting moving from my heart up
through the chords to my friends, painted on a computer screen. I win my battle with
machines by making a computer my canvas: painting a hopeful likeness of three friends
looking at each other, connecting in a natural landscape, away from the burden of phones.
All humans can find a way out if our hearts stay connected to our friends and use our
machines to create a spectrum of creativity, rather than letting our machines use us.
As a human who grew up with technology all around me, I can definitely say the
younger generations are glued to their devices, and as a result are struggling to connect with
other humans. I’ve missed birthday parties and I’ve been robbed of meaningful maternal
connections because of my phone, represented by the images in the bottom left and bottom
right of my piece. Tech creates a web of boundaries shown by my painting rhythmic tech
patterns invading my heart from the left. My empty gaze with an eye blinded by mechanical
parts gives the viewer an initial sense of a hopeless tangled prison of wires keeping me from
making connections with my family. But when I don’t have a phone at school, I make more
friends. I want viewers to discover that we should use our devices to create human
connection.
Design principles I focused on were contrast, balance, and rhythm. Human
experiences are light, that is why my heart is the sun. I carefully balanced the negativity of
tech with the sunny hope emanating from the heart that we can win the battle of humans
versus machines. The visual weight between figures on the left and right of me and the
painting of friends on the top of the piece is even. I also used materials that I have never used
before so it was a new experience for me. It was hard using the glue gun because it would get
all stringy and annoying but I liked how it came out. As I took apart chrome books I
wondered if it was possible to make beauty from the techpieces. I began to snap
motherboards and carve shapes understanding that the microchips could be repurposed as
swatches of color. Paying attention to the chroma and value of each piece I considered how
each additional wire impacted the pieces overall balance, rhythm, and unity. Repeating the
pieces and continuously increasing the contrast of the oil paint made the sculpture more

coherent, bright, and eye-catching. My favorite part of the process was when I painted the
sky because the colors were picked at random and I’m so glad that it
ended up looking nice and continuously revising until the piece became a beautiful battle.
Finally, the repurposed computer monitor drilled to the top of my piece inspired
adding a thicker wooden frame surrounding my painting. The wood signifies the cage that
screens create. Its material, however, is porous, and alive – suggesting that humans can
overcome a machine’s limitations. Since a person’s name is the first step to developing
human connection I spelled out my name with the keys. As you look around my piece, you
will notice that the spelling of my name starts to become more distorted, more encrypted. If
you can find your way through these coded messages, could you also navigate the
complexities of the human heart?
With the chrome book LCD taped together – and the help of my teachers, we
harnessed sunlight to create rainbows, which helped me to realize that technology, when
analyzed with curiosity, can create beauty after all. It’s my hope that the piece inspires
human hearts to gain strength and harness the power of tech to create more
human connections. I am also hoping to inspire other artists to continuously rework and
revise their art to find beauty in conflict, shown by the open hands ready to create, lit by the
rainbow.