As a transmission and sound artist, Martín Rodríguez’s work emerges from his Chicanx upbringing along the Arizona-Mexico border. He employs performance, intervention, and installation as a process for deciphering aural histories and intertwined identities.
After recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor, a chance encounter with a radio transmission caught in the pickup coils of his guitar transformed Rodríguez and his artistic process. Developing his practice from crisis, he examines radio as a transformative medium. Rooting his relationship with radio in healing, his artworks consider the manner in which sound and perceived sound can act as a vessel for affective transmissions. This interconnection engages radio’s ability to embody presence through space and time, allowing one to engage with sound through our corporeal and mental environment.
Notably, his work has been presented by the Musée d’art contemporain Montréal (CA), Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MX), Darling Foundry (CA), Walking Festival for Sound (UK/PL), Spektrum (DE), as well as various festivals and performance venues across Canada, and the US. In 2022 Rodríguez received the Dora & Avi Morrow Fellowship and is currently pursuing his MFA in Studio Arts with a focus in Intermedia at Concordia University.