Livia Corona Benjamin

Since 2019, Livia Corona Benjamin has been conducting a localized research project centered in the agricultural and aquaculture industries found in the northwest area of the Baja peninsula. The pieces presented in this exhibition are the outcome of this investigation. For these works, she used different residues and waste from such industries; like shells recovered from clandestine dumps (created by the demand from export companies of bivalves and crustaceans) and the surplus plastic left by polymer dispensing machinery used in agriculture. In her studio in the city of Ensenada, Corona Benjamin proceeds to crush, fragment, rearticulate and give new meanings to these discarded industrial materials and natural objects. Through labor-intensive processes of production, she gives form to artworks that point to the environmental impact of these food industries while, at the same time, engaging with other issues, such as aesthetic and art historical concerns—such as craft practices, modern painting in the West or the medium of photography. The scale of the pieces exhibited at Proxyco, from small to mural size, also synthesize the dissonance between manual and industrial work. Overall, Corona Benjamin's project continues her ongoing interest in landscape, at once natural but also economic and cultural due to human action and intervention.