curated by Donna Rae Kessinger

Zoomitograhy Rhizome is a site-specific installation created by Costa Rican artist Rodolfo Rojas-Rocha using a combination of conceptual maps, and hand-drawn elements derived from organic, rhizomatic and anatomical forms as well as mythological and pre-Columbian symbols.

Rojas-Rocha has explained: “I am interested in hybridized culture….to culture means transforming nature; I transform culture with rhizomatic drawing.

Concept mapping is the strategy employed to develop the art. A concept map consists of nodes or cells as rhizomatic links, which contain an image, words and lines. The links are labeled and denote direction with an arrow symbol related with muscles and organization structure. The labeled links explain the relationship between the nodes. The arrow describes the direction of the relationship and reads like a visual sentence.”

Rojas Rocha is a prolific painter, professor and community educator. He has had 20 solo shows and more than 90 national and international exhibitions in New York, Mississippi, Cartagena, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador and many other locations, and is a member of the Central American Artist Association (FECAP), and serves on the Ministry of Education, AED and Costa Rica Joven as an artistic education consultant.