Installation Art
Since 2014, Malena has been developing upcycled art installations and immersive environments for events, galleries and performances. She finds inspiration in what already exists, limiting the purchase of new materials where possible.
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The Flower of Cycles is a modular upcycled sculpture made with 49 bicycle rims and over 2,000 LEDs. It started as one “seed of life” made with 7 bicycle rims in 2014. By the next year, Malena expanded the sculpture into 7 “seeds” to create a “flower of life” formation.
The installation has been featured at festivals, galleries and special events across the west. It’s been featured as public art in the window gallery at Found:Re Hotel on Central Avenue in Phoenix (2018, 2019), as a TEDxASU stage design (2018), and the following festivals:
Firefly Gathering 2014, 2015
Symbiosis 2015
Burning Man 2015 (7:30 arts plaza)
Gem and Jam, 2016
Sonic Bloom, 2017
Global Eclipse Gathering, 2017
StarGate ReUnion, 2016, 2018, 2019
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The Flower of Cycledelics was a collaborative concept developed with analog media artist, Purdy Lites. Using a 15x15’ white room at the Unexpected Gallery in Phoenix, the duo combined the Flower of Cycles with camera inputs and projection outputs to create a three-wall video feedback space that resulted in a psychedelic visualizer. See the videos below.
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For Firefly Gathering, Malena created several custom installations from existing materials. She transformed a small comfy dome by Boots Paramour into the Internal Reflection Dome by lining all of the walls and dome triangles with reflective carnival mirror.
The String Portal was developed as a to-scale model to determine exact spacing to create a woven string entrance into the festival area.
Photos shown at the bottom of the page.
