Precious Gems

An introduction to Cristina de Lorenzo and Aurora Perea’s work

I first met Cristina de Lorenzo and Aurora Perea when they were working on an installation for an exhibit called:  “Illuminated Forest:  Snow White’s Dream” (see Figure 1).  The installation showed a multi-colored arrangement of elements such as strings, branches, crystals, flowers, and feathers, and it hung from the ceiling in such a way that a person could lie on the ground and feel completely immersed in that enchanted forest.  This was the first glimpse I had of the world in which these two artists spend their days.  Months later, they showed me another project which had to do with caves, grottos, crevices, stalactites and stalagmites, underground lakes, and hidden treasures.  It was also magical, profound, and intrinsically feminine.

This new project, “Meditation in Space” follows the same line of research:  Glass, crystal, precious gems, light, reflections, and mirrors, come together to create a magical, mysterious world of the artists’ own invention.  Each of the elements they work with carries its own symbolism.  For example, light has spiritual connotations, precious gems have traditionally been associated with knowledge and power, and crystal is transparent and thus allows light to pass through it, a characteristic which never seizes to amaze us.  When it comes to precious stones, the clarity of the stone affects its value:  the more transparent the stone, the more valuable it is.  The clarity itself is dictated by nature, but there is another important characteristic which is directly influenced by humans:  the “cut” of the stone.  The cut affects its brilliance because light bounces off each cut creating many reflections which have an almost hypnotic effect on us.  Perhaps our obsession with things that shine, glitter, and sparkle is due to the fact that they make us feel closer to the stars.

Cristina de Lorenzo refers to all this in her drawings of gems and her glass sculptures, colorful structures full of geometric angles which include a contrasting element such as a protruding shell or the indentation of one.  These sculptures invite us to put them up to the light and look through them, but also within them: to see what we can discover.  Aurora Perea also plays with light and darkness as well as transparency and radiance, but her paintings add another element.  For example, she shows us an intimate, private space where we simply see a plant in a vase, sitting peacefully on a windowsill.  She plays with shapes, shadows, and surfaces in an austere way.  Both artists are true to the “less is more” principle of expressive synthesis which characterizes 20^th century art. 

Cristina de Lorenzo and Aurora Perea’s joint project, the installation bathed in blue light presented in this catalogue, is based on Newton’s discovery of the spectrum of light as he studied the refraction of light by a prism.  As Juan F. Lacomba says: “Blue is all-encompassing, and it’s always been considered the color of melancholy.  The mirrors, salt, and other elements surrounding a private altar are aspects which give this montage cosmic and universal meaning.  Curiously enough, blue is associated with introverts or personalities with inner lives, and is related to circumspection, intelligence, and deep feelings.  It is the color of infinity, dreams, and wonderful things.  It symbolizes wisdom, fidelity, eternal truth and immortality…  When you mix blue with white you get purity, faith, and the color of the sky, but mixed with black, blue becomes desperation, fanaticism and intolerance.  Blue does not tire our eyesight in a large area or expanse.  In this joint installation created by both artists, blue stands for relaxation, an invitation to have a spiritual experience…”

This study of light, how light affects matter, how light bounces off crystal, and our obsession with gems and things that shine, reflecting onto other things, creating more reflections, adding more light to a certain space, dazzling and fascinating us, is augmented by the austere and minimalist aspect of the work of these two artists.  Unlike much of the artwork one sees nowadays, understanding their projects requires contemplation, reflection, meditation, and patience.  Cristina de Lorenzo and Aurora Perea manage to shine with light of their own, like two precious gems.

Gabriela Aeberhard