Homeland, 2006
Homeland, Peace White Homeland, Low Green Homeland, Guarded Blue Homeland, Elevated Yellow Homeland, High Orange Homeland, Severe Red

The Homeland series of works was originally conceived as a site-specific permanent installation commissioned by architect Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis for a 353,000 sq. ft. student recreation center on the campus of the University of Cincinnati, which opened in May 2006. Mendez's original installation comprises six murals, measuring 9 by 20 feet each, suspended from the ceiling at the convenience store of the Recreation Center. Mendez composed 24 panoramas she refers to as “…ever sustaining landscapes. All products and nourishment have as their origin the extraction or harvest of the raw materials provided by the earth.” Mendez’s intent is to give the viewer a glimpse of these raw materials in their integrity and beauty and to expose the distribution and processing of these goods before they are conveniently packaged for consumption at the "c-store."

Formally, the horizon lines of the landscapes have become thresholds to imagining new, non-existent landscapes where glaciers float over puffy clouds and Nordic cows graze on top of tropical waters. Using her own documentary photography from far-flung places such as Patagonia and the Sahara desert, Mendez’s landscapes tease the viewer to see beyond the horizon, which she views as “the perpetual aim of humanity.” Placed in each landscape is a short line of text -- a sensation, a glimpse of a memory, or a moment of an experience triggered by the landscape. The short texts include references to sustainability -- “till the last tree” over an image of cows grassing -- pointing back to Méndez’s interpretation of the core theme of "ever sustaining landscapes" that are being farmed, drilled, eroded and melted, for our "convenience."

Each of the six murals has an overall dominating color -- red, orange, yellow, blue, green and white. The first five of these colors correspond to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Alert Threat Levels, red indicating "severe" and green signifying "low." Mendez realised that "peace" and its corresponding color, white, were missing from the chart, and created an additional panel. The six panels give an impression of the power and beauty of the landscape and question the cost of convenience.