Susy Gómez

Galleria Giorgio Persano, Turin
Through March 15

Spanish artist Susy Gómez, who works with large format photography and installations, defines art as, “an adventure whose aim is the exploration of the private side of existence.” For this exhibition in Turin she has created a project in which photography and sculpture are interactive. This impulse arose from a desire to show the simplicity of private life in contrast with the fevered “public” existence, which often erases a sense of “belonging” and, therefore, the identity of the subject.

The artist constructs her works starting from details that are at times insignificant, such as an article of clothing or an embroidered object. These details always carry an autobiographical connotation, endowing consistency upon the subjective aspect. A photograph showing a female character whose face is entirely covered by a large sphere is hung on a wall at the entrance to the gallery. The sphere renders it impossible to identify her—a feature common to all the images on display, where some detail is always erased or discolored so as to emphasize the enigmatic aspect of the person.

A five-meter long bronze sculpture on the floor “reproduces” the outline of a country lane in which the artist's footprints are still visible, seemingly inviting the visitor to follow her along an ideal path. The central space contains an installation consisting of two large photographs—female figures with disappearing faces, shrouded in clothes—and black drawings carried out directly onto the wall, reproducing strange, fantastical flowers. On the floor there is a bronze foot from which “grows” a tree branch, while not far off there is a plaster model of a house.

In its entirety, the installation highlights the subtle, yet intense, bond between man, nature, and spirit, metaphor of an ethos that succeeds in reinventing life through desire and memory. Works set out in the adjacent space are also highly evocative: several bronze fish lie on the floor, displaced from their natural habitat, while soft threads of yarn hang down from the corset of a woman's dress.




Tiziana Conti
translation by Robin Poppelsdorff