Sonia Alins · CLIENT: Sonia Alins
This series surprises the viewer with a mysterious aquatic environment where expressive figures of great proportions emerge, victims of fate. The artist explores the possibilities of transparency and blur, establishing different levels of perception by bringing depth to the pieces. All of this, thanks to a planned minimalist combination of materials, mainly paper and polypropylene. Thus emerges a suggestive conceptual work with a symbolic and surreal personality.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Into the Water is a series of artworks with which the artist explores, in a special way, concepts such as surrealism and visual poetry. Besides that, the unique personality of this series is the consequence of a studied process of creation that experiments with the idea of generating, in a minimalist way, ethereal atmospheres through different levels of transparency. The result are mysterious and delicate collages that contain very expressive figures emerging from an aquatic environment.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 500 mm x 500 mm x 45 mm each artwork
- Tags
- surrealism, minimalism, illustration, art, atmosphere, symbolic, collage, blurred, water, mysterious
- Production Technology
- For the production and realization of the artworks the following materials have been necessary: watercolor paper and cardboards of different shades for the trimmed figures, that are inked with black ink and painted with watercolors and colored pencils. On the other hand, polypropylene sheets were used for the aquatic environment. Some of the pieces also include wool to add different textures. Once the different pieces were assembled in a inner frame, they were inserted into a outer frame with a height of 45mm. Thus the pieces have depth and we obtain different degrees of blur.
- Design Challenge
- Behind some seemingly simple images there is a demanding search job. It was necessary to find a material that offered different degrees of visibility depending on the distance between this and the figures. After several tests with tracing paper, the final solution were the polypropylene sheets, perfect because of its consistency and a suitable degree of blurring.
It was also difficult to find a perfect solution for the coloring of the background and the figures and how to place the figures in order to obtain the exact grade of blurring and the maximum expressiveness to the whole scene. - Project Duration
- The project started in February 2014 in Lleida with a short collection of five pieces (230 x 230 mm each). The definitive artworks (500 x 500 mm) were completed in November 2016 in Lleida. One of the pieces, called Into the water, was selected as a finalist at the World Illustration Awards 2016 (backed by the AOI): currently, it is part of the exhibition tour all around the UK.
- Operation Flow
- The originality of the technique and the delicate but strong personality of this collection, ensure that the interaction with the viewer is very intense. "Into The Water" series try to convey an ethereal sensation when looking at the bodies fading subtly under a translucent veil that brings depth to the pieces and adds to the work a strange feeling of unreality that disturbingly combines with the situation of extreme expressiveness that the characters are experiencing.
- Research
- The aim of the artistic research was to create artworks full of visual poetry and lyricism.
After defining the artistic idea, the objective of the technical research was to create an environment with different degrees of transparency that gives tridimensionality to the artwork. So, I tested papers and cardboards for the figures and many semitransparent materials for the background. I also tested tulle, cloth or wool, in order to represent different textures.
The results were positive, as the definitive collages convey the feelings intended at the beginning of the project. - Inspiration
- Inspiration for these artworks comes from the contemplation of several of my favorite artists namely Joseph Cornell, Yves Klein, Francesca Woodman, Wynn Bullock and Barbara Morgan. Also, Hieronymus Bosch is always present as a referent due to his narrative. Apart from that, I felt the need to explore, in a subtle way, the idea of transparency and different levels of perception, in order to achieve the unreal atmosphere I wanted in my artworks. To me, this was the perfect setting to develop my narrative and convey emotion.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Artist Sonia Alins, 2016
Image #2: Artist Sonia Alins, 2016
Image #3: Artist Sonia Alins, 2016
Image #4: Artist Sonia Alins, 2016
Image #5: Artist Sonia Alins, 2016 - Patents
- © Sonia Alins, 2016.
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