From Stereotype to Prototype:

If one had to describe Nina Surel’s works, words such as feminine, feminist, over-elaborated, obsessive, intrinsic, detail-oriented, balanced and extremely rich in texture and labor can be utilized. Nina Surel’s art speaks about the life of womanhood and its perception. It is a search for identity and she expresses vulnerability and strength, both at the same time. Her body of work encompasses aesthetic beauty with a whimsical touch.

Nina Surel’s work is purely feminine. Yet, her work is a playful approach to feminism. Surel’s cultural background is traced in the works from 2005. Her solo show “Princess beyond Stereotypes” belonged to times when she was exploring her historical and personal life. Her upbringing in Argentina has set a mode with memories of the past, mixed with habits and traditions.

Her childhood memories are seen in dressed canvases with exquisite wallpaper patterns. Decorative little toys such as Teddy Bears, tiny teacups and saucers, spoons and dollhouses were neatly applied or drawn on the surface of the canvas. Many works were constructed in a narrative composition divided into separate sequences, allowing the viewer to read a story or a particular event. At a distance it can be perceived as merely decorative pieces, no elements toys or stencils are out of place, tilted or crooked. But, at close range one distinguishes the detail and perfection of the collage-like pictures.

The main figure in her past work has usually been a little girl, twins or a balance of children figures: Equilibrium, soothing the eye of the viewer. Sometimes the elaborated background played with the center image, making it hard to distinguish weather a dress pattern is the same as the wallpaper design or the background color is the same as the skirt made out of pink buttons. Analytically, the surroundings or background of her works represent the outside world, those statements, banal comments or lifestyle habits which influence and trace the life of a young child.

In her recent works we see a transition and development of the main figure. The young impeccable doll-like girl that floats in the picture becomes an adolescent girl and then a grown up woman. The transformation to adulthood takes place in Surel’s latest works. The little girl is not concerned any more with the surrounding and the comfortable place she once belonged. Suddenly those neat and tidy backgrounds with line divisions suddenly become unorganized, dark and spotted. The color resembling blood, referring to the becoming of a woman is found in works such as “Handle with Care” and “Gift from the Sea”.

Young girls or teenagers are dressed in old fashioned clothes made of applied precious jewels and sea shells. Some of the girls are hugging animals such as turtles or bunny’s. Other are holding fish or seahorses from a string as trophies symbolizing prosperity and fertility. Sometimes the girl is holding a rabbit or a house against her chest, as not to loose it, indicating the fragility of life and time: “Girl with Sea Turtle”, “Handle with care” and “Home of the Brave”.

The evolution and exploration continues in works like “Crab on Coral” and “Shell on wood”, but these are merely transitional pieces awaiting the arrival of a more important figure. The stereotype is left behind and the prototype emerges. A complete and monumental woman, charged with energy and subtleness. Nina Surel has found the pinnacle of womanhood in a new creation: “La Peregrina”.

As in “La Peregrina”, “Lady with Crab” has a saintly aura. Both are the same image of a young woman, Surel herself? The heavily varnished background just merely represents a backdrop. The work is composed of organic materials: wood and shells. Tiaras and crowns show the traditional icon of a Saint or holy creature. Shells, pearls, embroidery and lace are part of the new age. The powerful image resembles prosperity and fortune. The pilgrim woman is centered and looking straight at the viewer, in control, defying and challenging.

Beyond the intrinsic elaboration of these pieces we can still identify a sense of mockery noted. Girls in proper attire, woman in long dresses and sleeves identify the naivety of the gender. It is also the interpretation that women are old fashion in tradition and intimacy. The shells and crustaceous can also be translated as “hard as shell” meaning the powerful strength of women and the rejection of bad influences. The new woman also reflects a rejection to vulnerability through the crustaceous hard shells and the shiny metal.

The Immaculate Conception (not in a religious way) is shown in these last pieces. Women represented as precious jewels that deceive the eye. Nevertheless, the feeling of an ornamental look in a decorative work is seen at first glance. If it is examined closely, the precious inner soul of the female body and psyche is found.

Isabel Block
Buenos Aires, Argentina
February 2009