TSUNAMI: NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM COMMISION
Méndez was commissioned by Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects to
design the visual identity and a 20,000+ sq. ft. mural for Tsunami, an ARK
Restaurant in the Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Project Description In Morphopedia
“Rather than overtly simulating a visit to an Asian city, Tsunami presents an experience through a formal reinterpretation of the tropes that define Las Vegas; surfaces bend back and delaminate to expose an idea of architecture rather than a copy of architecture. The hybrid design mediates between the immateriality of a two-dimensional image and the presence of a three-dimensional volume. In the tension between these two systems—the graphic and the spatial—a coherent order emerges.
The geometrically manipulated plane defines and modifies the space. Artist Rebeca Méndez’s densely collaged graphic elements of Asian culture suggest a sense of place through color, density, saturation, and imagery. The flat graphic surface morphs in three dimensions—an inner lining that bends, folds, and wraps—creating a dialogue between the figurative logic of drawing and the spatial logic of architecture.
“Among Méndez’s recent projects is a series of vast murals for the Las Vegas restaurant Tsunami created in collaboration with architect Thom Mayne and his office Morphosis. The ‘pan-Asian’ menu of the restaurant eliminates distinctions among cultures and cuisine, allowing flavors, ingredients, and cooking methods to merge into a free-form vocabulary. Reflecting on the themed content of the restaurant, Méndez developed narratives of visual dissolution, in which discrete elements melt seamlessly into each other. To produce the project, she directed an underwater film shoot of a Japanese woman, who appears in the murals to dissolve and disappear into waves of imagery.
“Rebeca Méndez assembles diaphanous veils of image and text in her designs for books, posters, and architectural murals.”
Méndez’s architectural projects are an extension of the books and catalogues she has produced for cultural organizations such as the Art Center College of Design, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In her publication designs, Méndez develops pristine organizational structures that interact with the organic flow of content. The challenge in designing catalogues of visual art is to create a welcoming and accessible stage for the artifact while giving the print environment its own identity and character.
“Rebeca Méndez enables two-dimensional surfaces to harbor illusions of depth, endowing them with such physical qualities as translucency and tension. From the tidy rectangle of the page to the immersive scenario of an architectural interior, she transforms images from static, self-contained objects to open, flowing fields for visual experience.”
– Ellen Lupton, Curator of Design, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. From the Exhibition Catalogue Design Culture Now, National Design Triennial, (2000).
Project Description In Morphopedia
“Rather than overtly simulating a visit to an Asian city, Tsunami presents an experience through a formal reinterpretation of the tropes that define Las Vegas; surfaces bend back and delaminate to expose an idea of architecture rather than a copy of architecture. The hybrid design mediates between the immateriality of a two-dimensional image and the presence of a three-dimensional volume. In the tension between these two systems—the graphic and the spatial—a coherent order emerges.
The geometrically manipulated plane defines and modifies the space. Artist Rebeca Méndez’s densely collaged graphic elements of Asian culture suggest a sense of place through color, density, saturation, and imagery. The flat graphic surface morphs in three dimensions—an inner lining that bends, folds, and wraps—creating a dialogue between the figurative logic of drawing and the spatial logic of architecture.
“Among Méndez’s recent projects is a series of vast murals for the Las Vegas restaurant Tsunami created in collaboration with architect Thom Mayne and his office Morphosis. The ‘pan-Asian’ menu of the restaurant eliminates distinctions among cultures and cuisine, allowing flavors, ingredients, and cooking methods to merge into a free-form vocabulary. Reflecting on the themed content of the restaurant, Méndez developed narratives of visual dissolution, in which discrete elements melt seamlessly into each other. To produce the project, she directed an underwater film shoot of a Japanese woman, who appears in the murals to dissolve and disappear into waves of imagery.
“Rebeca Méndez assembles diaphanous veils of image and text in her designs for books, posters, and architectural murals.”
Méndez’s architectural projects are an extension of the books and catalogues she has produced for cultural organizations such as the Art Center College of Design, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In her publication designs, Méndez develops pristine organizational structures that interact with the organic flow of content. The challenge in designing catalogues of visual art is to create a welcoming and accessible stage for the artifact while giving the print environment its own identity and character.
“Rebeca Méndez enables two-dimensional surfaces to harbor illusions of depth, endowing them with such physical qualities as translucency and tension. From the tidy rectangle of the page to the immersive scenario of an architectural interior, she transforms images from static, self-contained objects to open, flowing fields for visual experience.”
– Ellen Lupton, Curator of Design, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. From the Exhibition Catalogue Design Culture Now, National Design Triennial, (2000).
