Material for reflection, objects left pending, boxes full of thoughts, leaves, the unrest and unquiet of layers of materials moving like water over the sand, such are some of the associations conjured up by this exhibition of work by Susana Jaime-Mena, titled Extemporizations. The ocean breaks onto itself like the century arriving at the end of its journey, extending over the beaches, barely penetrating the sands, then falls back, before the cycle starts all over again. In this contact between materials, there is both similarity and contrast between the artist's work and the image of the sea. The similarities are to be found in the natural materials and the conditions of matter, as well as in the all-embracing movement of the water, like the lead or wax which covers almost all Jaime-Mena's objects. Her rounded edges and angles of wood coated with lead or wax do not have the irregular disorder of shapeless mass characteristic of the surrealist style.
Susana Jaime-Mena. Book 1,1999. Waxon paper. 7,5 x 9.6 x 5,5 in.
On the contrary, there is a surreal serenity in these works, in both the small pieces as well as the larger ones, although all of them, irrespective of size, are both light and dense. Although they cannot be defined as figurative pieces, there is some relationship here with the works of Delvaux or Magritte, particularly in the surreal aura which they generate. Both the Belgian painters and the Argentinian artist —who has now taken up U.S. nationality— pay attention to the historical parameters regarding modernity. In looking at these works, the spectator's gaze slides over surfaces that offer no resistance, although there is a clear sense of consistency in these objects. In a period of synthetic materials, many artists have chosen to use wax in various ways: sometimes it is visible, sometimes hidden, used as an unseen structural element, or as a major source of poetry. Substances that require heating before use can be employed in installations, in a kind of alchemy. In Quirk, as well as in the other small pieces, instead of a wax bubble, it is an unusual form that emerges. Like the brrppp of a science fiction film, bones or shell-like forms are centralized in the reliefs. These are fossils for the future made by a Penelope who does not weave.
The works of Susana Jaime-Mena are mainly three-dimensional: they are rectangular objects in wood covered with lead. They are not identical but they are similar and stimulate the senses of people of different ages. Movement, touch, sight, and smell are all brought into play.
Similarly, the artist manages to create the impression of a module, a cavern, a bookcase of incunabula... This is a minimalist art, ludic, ritualistic, and educational. In these spaces, we see books created by the artist within aesthetic and symbolic discourse. To the spectator, they seem to be there like some peaceful Wall of Lamentations, like objects in churches visited during the time of the Crusades.
GRACIELA KARTOFEL