Colinas huecas n.º 2 (Hollow Hills No. 2)

From the early 1980s Susana Solano moved away from Minimalist formalism in order to work on pieces rooted in the expression of subjectivity. The creative and material process can be seen in the serenity and subtlety of form in sculptures which, while traditionally crafted, are often based on manufactured materials and structures taken from industry, such as steel plate, black iron, galvanised iron, railings, lead sheets and corrugated iron. The basis of the powerful volumes in space that Susana Solano has worked on is built on allusion to real-life situations of inner seclusion, recalled and reconfigured, paradoxically, in an open space, transforming the sculptures into a “communication space”. This has placed her, from the beginning, a long way from any attempt to faithfully represent what is visible, in order, rather, to seek to create sensations through shapes in space with a certain metaphorical component, and never-obvious poetics. Her works often evoke the flow of water in the scenery and places of childhood; in others, the body and intimate experiences, like physical crevices and landscapes of cavernous hills. The artist has written: “Art belongs to the tissue that encapsulates the temporal and recalls it, the lights that illuminate it and the glances that approach it to explore what it entails.”

Carmen Fernández Aparicio