Jimena Rosalva Padilla Pineda - Conversations with Gen Z

Jimena Padilla Pineda

April 15 – April 23rd, 2021

Carroll Gallery, Tulane University

Conversations with Gen Z is commemorative of the past year (March 2020-2021) and of a specific cohort, namely Gen Z. During quarantine, I became ever more aware of my limitless access to information, to news, and the need for a balance between escapism and anxiety. To be informed was a means of self-awareness, simultaneously empowering and overwhelming. With the advent of summer, racial and wealth inequalities were at the forefront of my cohort’s minds. A year came and went wildfires, hurricanes, unemployment rates and coronavirus infections came in waves, as did feelings of sadness and hope that resembled the collective grieving for normalcy, connection, loved ones. As I looked to the past, I also looked forward and found myself collecting memories, newspapers, and conversations with friends accepting the bitter with the sweet.

This exhibit materializes but one pixel, one beat in the rhythm of history and Gen Z’s impact on it. In creating these images, I discovered myself within my generation, specifically a small cohort of Gen Zers in my life. As our generation comes of age, I cannot make out the end of the road. This scene is awfully pixelated and subject to change. Nevertheless, Covid-19, climate change, systemic racism, income inequality, misinformation, are universal crises with an asymmetric impact that will supply the landscape of our class picture. The following images exist between digital and analog processes, pragmatic and idealistic views, nostalgia and contemporaneity.