New work
Dancing with my shadows beneath the luminous gaze of your eternal reckoning.
In 2024 I was generously invited to create a site specific project at The Crypt Gallery in St. Pancras.
Dancing with my shadows beneath the luminous gaze of your eternal reckoning is the culmination of this 2 week residency.
I see the Crypt as a metaphor for a female organ, one that cocoons and protects its visitors while also limiting access to light and the outside world. There are clear parallels between this hidden, confined space and the act of motherhood and caregiving—both nurturing and sheltering while maintaining a sense of enclosure and restriction.
During my time there I explored the architectural corners of the space and how they limit and direct light and movement.
Using the dark quality of the Crypt and its humidity I exposed photographic paper using a tin pinhole camera , I created a darkroom where to experiment with chemigrams while also working on porcelain.
Lumo chemigrams
I made all the work in the space. I set up a darkroom where I projected the pinhole photographs onto big pieces of B&W darkroom photographic and I use chemicals and some light from the security bulbs to print them. This part of the project was the most challenging as I couldn't black out completely the space ,neither rinse completely the prints .This meant that the chemical kept reacting throughout the rest of my stay. If you know me ,you would know I like to control as much as I can the technical aspects of my work, by in this process I had to let it go and fully commit to let the space co create the work. I loved it, particularly how the paper mimicked the walls ,the tones, the time stained colours and there was also an element of disintegration, as memory failure.
These images aren't the definite ones, I will be scanning the work in the next days.
Pinholes and Photograms
These works were exposed and developed by myself during the residency. The small size of the works (10.5 x 14.8 cm, Ilford B&W) allowed me to develop them under a table covered with a black cloth using a small safety light.
When I arrived to the space I setted up 2 pinhole cans as surveillance cameras, I left them to exposure the paper for about 3/4 days ,develop the paper and load them again.
The Fallen caryatid
One of the most relevant features at St Pancras Church are the eight female figures known as caryatids employed to support the rooves of two pavilions standing above the entrances to the crypt.
The caryatids are modelled on those on the Erechtheum on the Acropolis in Athens – Henry William Inwood, who designed the church with his father William Inwood, apparently brought plaster casts of the original back to England to help with their plans for the building.
Caryatids are sculpted female figures serving as architectural support, taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head.
In the Gates of Hell Rodin changed his approach and chose to depict this caryatid as a crushed, almost defeated figure. He modelled her powerful body in a crouching pose, bowed down by the weight of the rock.
In symbolic terms, The Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone represents the human being under the weight of destiny, but Rodin's figure also symbolizes courage, as she has not completely defeated.
Here it is, my version of it.
Ceramics
While waiting for the exposures ,I used porcelain to create sculptures responding to ideas of memory, impermanence and history.
Using selected broken mouldings I found on the floor, I used them as guides to shape my porcelain sculptures, these shapes on one side conserve the erosion marks of the time passing and the handling and on the other side the marks made by the movement of my hands, These two sculpture are currently being fired and the pictures correspond to the green ware in process.
Photography has a hold on me, but I feel compel to touch raw materials, to squeeze and stroke them, there is something about the input of the cold porcelain in my body that is addictive.
Final images to come soon.
In the last 3 years I lost some of the most important people in my life, being far away from them made things worse. Grieving feels like a never ending process, and this was one of the reasons behind my application to work in this space.
I wonder if now that these people aren't here, the me that they knew, which I consider the purest as they knew since childhood, doesn't exist anymore? Has a part of me and my history disappear with them? Will I remember who I am/was without them.
I made two more sculptures responding to this.
In the first one, I asked my child to hold my hand and tried to freeze and materialise the space "in between",the space of contact. The photographed work has only been bisque fired.
In the second one there was also holding , but to the extent of breaking.
If you would like to commission a personal piece please email piajaimeart.
Last but not least...
My first residency in Europe after finishing my studies in Argentina was in Alacala del Jucar, Spain.
In this stunning place I created an installation with hi-viz jackets moulded as butterflies on the side of the mountain, you can read more about it here.
I am inspired by the Latin American magic realism movement ,I love the idea of these objects taking a life of their own , becoming a beautiful ,almost feminine forms instead of warnings of dangers. Being an immigrant,I am very aware of how we are perceived (a threat) and which kind of jobs first arrivals are likely to get (manual and labour intensive)
Pictured: 4.5 cm porcelain sculptures hanging on a wall..
