Aida Tejada
MFA ’24 Fine Arts Low-Residency
My art practice is a mejunje—a concoction where materiality evokes mending, memory, and otherness. My process expresses the sensorial aspects of my early years in the Dominican Republic. Commercial toys were scarce, but with my four siblings, the natural world and any found object were infinite resources for creating fantastical narratives.
I use what is discarded, such as coffee grounds and orange peels. In addition to witnessing society’s overconsumption, these materials transmit the memory of their origins, from colonization to their present transformation into commodities. To fulfill that task, “the Other’s” hands are required to perform the labor. In their tactility, these materials also embody my multiple heritage where the African slave, Indigenous Taino, Magrhebian People, and European colonizer coexist.
Through this spontaneous and experimental approach — I mix, shape, transform, and mend. I create skin-like works with these materials that become site-specific installations, indoor and outdoor sculptures, and performative shadow theaters that embody my mejunje.
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Native of the Dominican Republic, Aida Tejada has worked in visual arts for over fifteen years. Her degrees in Psychology and Communication and her multicultural background shape her visual vocabulary. Her interdisciplinary practice explores materiality as narrative content, providing a space for dialogue about memory, identity, and otherness. Her work has been showcased and awarded in numerous exhibitions, She has also been granted with two art residencies. Tejada lives in Miami, Florida. Along with her studio work, she is an independent teaching artist.
