Mariah Moneda

My name is Mariah Orate Moneda and my first dream was to be an astronaut. I wanted to see things no one else has seen before, I wanted to explore new boundaries, I wanted to know what it felt like to float in outer space alone and looking at the curve of the planet earth while the sun poured out into the vastness, swallowed up by the darkness around it. My second dream was to be a writer, I wanted to conjure up a personal paradise with people who cared, an indulgent escape from my every day, where every day was the adventure, where I could go and enjoy wherever the wind took me. When I was born, my parents allegedly named me after an old western song, “They Call the Wind, Mariah,” because I came out of the womb so quickly. The song opens with a deep chorus bellowing “Mariah” and the rushing vocals to mimic sounds of air cutting through the grass, “They have a name for rain and wind and fire… Mariah blows the stars around and sends the clouds a flyin’” and these lyrics, this song, that I used to find embarrassing as a thirteen-year-old, is now an endearing representation of a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes uncontrollable and chaotic, sometimes soft and calming, all of the energy or completely still, unpredictable. I’m not any of the things I thought I would be growing up. The curiosity is still there but I find it ironic that I’m an artist now, a career that’s based in creation and exploration, I’d like to think the younger version of me would be proud that we’re still exploring the in-between.

Mariah Moneda (b.1997) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator currently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is an Ed-GRs Graduate and Theodora Herfulth Kubly Minority Fellow. Her work investigates the connection between memory and the body’s senses to explore the nuanced relationship of labor, ritual, and community. Working with photography, sculpture, and social practice, Mariah draws on her lived experience as a first-generation, Filipino-American woman reflecting on the pervasive feeling of disconnection. Through this lens she leans into the experiential and utilizes food culture as an invitation to create community and consideration for those who share a space.

Mariah received her BFA from Arizona State University in Photography, has taught at San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, has spoken at the Herberger Institute of Design and Arts, Artist Colloquium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grossmont Community College, and The School of Human Ecology. Her work has been shown nationally and regionally across the United States at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston-Salem, NC) the Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO) The AjA Project (San Diego, CA), with work in collections at Arizona State University’s Northlight Gallery.

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