Re:Discovering Ricardo Miranda Zuniga

New York-based artist Ricardo Miranda Zuniga has been marking the new media art scene with his provocative body of work. His activist, socially-engaged practice reflects his own history: having been born of Nicaraguan immigrant parents, he experienced the discrimination that this group often suffers in the US, especially in a period defined by conservative values. His relation to Nicaragua was the starting point of Fallout (2005), a repository of personal perspectives concerning the Nicaraguan national identity. Also among his most well-known projects is Dentimundo (2005), consisting of an online resource documenting the landscape of Mexican border dentistry. The piece casts a powerful metaphor about labor forces in a global economy. Although many of his projects have a web dimension, he has expanded his practice beyond the internet and, over the last few years, has been combining computer-generated images with sculptures involving technology in large-scale installations. For example, Fallout: What's Left, is a development of the initial online presence of this work and was presented at Brooklyn's Momenta Art in late 2005. Here, the text submissions that were at the core of Fallout informed the propaganda-style posters featured at that artist-run space, and the work established a new trajectory to the ebb and flow of Latin American Marxist revolutions. His last public intervention was last summer at Berlin's Schlossplatz, a traditionally politicized site. There he co-organized a live event of experimental music that took over that famous plaza. Those that did not see it or have not yet connected with his ideas and process will have a chance to know him soon, as he will be part of the upcoming show, 'What War?,' that will open in the Fall at New York's White Box gallery. Until then, his website is a great way of discovering this fascinating artist. - Miguel Amado