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FIRST PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE IN THE YOUNG ARTISTS COMPETION OF CASTILLA-LA
MANCHA, DISCOVERIES PHE02, GRANT ART VISUAL FROM THE GENERALITAT VALENCIANA,
FINALIST IN PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE YOUNG CREATORS COMPETITION FROM MADRID...
2002 was a fruitful year for María Alonso. And it is because recognition
is arriving for this young valencian artist. ¿The secret? "To be very patient
and keep being excited about what one does. This is like a very long run
in which, unfortunately many people leave it somewhere." For this reason,
she is satisfied with this prizes which acknowledge her work. "Prizes are
very important. Without them I do not know how we would do to open our way.
Although I try to see them as something relative, because for a prize one
is given there are many prizes which one is not given, and the works were
equally valuable". María Alonso is a multidisciplinar artist. Amongst her pieces we find paintings, sculptures, photographs and films. Although she does not show preferences for any of this sides of Art. |
| "What I like is the generation of projects. In this stage, all possibilities are open, I feel like a demiurgo, with all the power and no limitations of practical or material kind. Later, I have to condense all this world in an exhibition and then it starts to feel more painful. The decision of using one or other medium depends mainly in the things available at each time." Despite all, photography is one of the keys in her artistic carrier, or at least, one of her works more recognised by the art critics, who have known how to value her style: "More than making photographs, I build images. For instance, the project iyalo generated from trying to make a synthesis of the iconography in different cultures. In each photograph, there is an amount of information codified, the result works as an icon, in which it is not as important what one sees, as the effect that it has at a subtle level". When the time for photography comes, María Alonso uses indistinctly color or black and white. "I like both equally. The biggest problem comes when mounting the color works, since it is difficult to show together very different series. There are even some pieces that ask for their own space. I was very surprised by the effect of the series Archetypes, when I saw it hanging in an old Church." Her film work has many characteristics in common with the photographic work: "My photographs have something of cinema, since many times they are images which are changing, like in the series Head and Moon, where the new moon transforms into the full moon. Each discipline has its advantages and disadvantages, in film you can give more to the spectator, because you count with the factor time, but you also risk loosing it, and it has the inconvenience of being transitory". But maybe what most distinguishes and defines the work of María Alonso is the special treatment of light in her pieces. It is an essential element, without which they would not have the same meaning: "Light and shadow are one of the metaphors of which I have done more interpretations. They symbolise an state of transit, also a mental process or something that we do not see". María Alonso has her mind full of projects. Now she is working in an exhibition of works on paper, which connects the series of the Archetypes with the history of painting. And for the future many other things: "At the beginning of march the exhibition iyalo will be closed in Alicante. I want to find a proper place for this collection. From spring onwards I shall start to show the drawings in which I am working now, and I´ll hang the information in my web (www.mariaalonso.com)". | |