Mylene Zozaya -Tinoco

Untitled No.8. From the series In pursuit of the sublime, 2022

IN PURSUIT OF THE SUBLIME

Image: in pursuit of the sublime

This project ponders on the aesthetic dilemma of the immediacy of contemporary image production, which currently seems to displace the moment of the sublime to focus solely on the beautiful, thus tearing apart the aesthetic reflection that is developed through technique and the technical-analytical faculty, which the artist develops when trying to capture a transcendent image. >> Continue reading text by PhD Héctor Fabián García

In search of the self, image and spirit

The contemplation of nature is to manifest the desire to dissolve, to dissolve in the environment, to return to the origin where all the elements that make up the world coexist in the same ontological degree: the human being, the rivers, the animals, the plants, the air and the rain without distinctions or hierarchies. Contemplation calls for a self-emptying, a distancing from the self in order to be us, the world. >> Continue reading text by PhD Omar Rosales

Untitled No.2. From the series In pursuit of the sublime, 2022

WAYS OF SEEING

Ways of seeing No.2, 2025

Today, most digital images are shaped by algorithmic systems rather than human vision. Photos taken with mobile phones are processed by software that distorts perspective, yet they’re treated as objective records and used to train large language models (LLMs), creating a feedback loop where machines learn to see through machine-generated logic.

This project exposes that loop. Using a custom algorithm, it analyzes how LLMs interpret these images and reconstructs them from a viewpoint closer to human perception—revealing the hidden systems that now mediate our ways of seeing.

Ways of seeing No.3, 2025

ON PERFECTION

View Series

Does perfection exist? This series reflects on the quest for that utopia known as the “perfect,” which intertwines the most complex concepts of our desires, overshadowed by the impossibility of its own existence. While perfection resides in the realm of the unachievable, its encounter is made possible through the small fragments that compose the whole.

Each work in this series is created through a meticulous process of manually applying gold leaf, copper leaf, and other metals. This slow, repetitive, and silent act becomes a form of meditation. The surface emerges from fragments—layered, irregular, and temporal—inviting a kind of attention that is both visual and contemplative.

The circle, present in several pieces, is not a symbol of ideal form but a gesture toward wholeness that arises from imperfection. The composition is built not to impress with precision, but to hold space for stillness, process, and presence.

On Perfection #17. Artist Series. 2024

MEMENTO MORI

View Series

In Western culture, still life in the modern age emerges as a genre that alludes to the transience of life and the vanity of mundane existence—what we might call the accumulation of goods, the exercise of power, and dogmatism, among others.

The iconography typically found in “vanitas” or still lifes, such as skulls, clocks, and instruments of knowledge, is transformed in this piece by natural elements that evoke the unity of humanity and the world from which we emerged and to which we will ultimately return, at the end of our human lives.

The series Memento mori: Remember That You Will Die, revives one of the many forgotten genres in the history of art, serving as an exercise in simplicity in the face of a world overwhelmed by crises—whether natural, spiritual, political, or moral.

From the series Memento mori. No title #6, 2023

STUDIES OF REALITY

Video. 2016-2021.

ON TIME

Is it possible to truly understand time? We are contained within it; it defines us.

No artwork can represent time. Any attempt becomes, inevitably, symbolic.

The spiral at the center of this piece gestures toward that condition. At one point, it folds back on itself, subtly altering the expected direction.

Some cosmological views describe time as cyclical. We exist within cycles, as time and the universe fold and unfold through us.

The artist’s practice engages in an ongoing investigation of how different philosophical frameworks—particularly from Eastern and Western traditions—approach time, perception, and the nature of being. When such questions resist direct representation, what emerges are symbolic gestures.

In Zen Buddhism—especially in the writings of Dōgen, founder of the Sōtō Zen in Japan—time is not separate from being, but identical with it. His concept of uji, or “being-time,” suggests that each moment is a complete expression of existence. U signifies “being” and ji means “time” or “occasion.”

This work takes on a sculptural form that may resonate with any conception of time held by the viewer

On Time #14 . 2024

DOUBTING THE OBVIOUS: Conversations after a century of Duchamp’s Fountain.

Through five international interviews with specialists from various disciplines of art theory, this project opens up the possibility of reflecting on the relevance of the iconic modern artwork “The Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp (1917):

Matthew Affron: Curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which houses the largest collection of works by M. Duchamp. [U.S.A.]
David Campany: Image theorist. [U.K.]
Kathrin Becker: Art historian and curator specializing in video art. [Germany]
Horacio Zabala: Visual and theoretical artist. [Argentina]
Tania Aedo: Multimedia curator. [Mexico].

Introduction by Mylene Zozaya.