From the Water to the Woods: New Dioramas by Sonia Alins Miguel

Last Feb­ru­ary, I mar­veled over Sonia Alins Miguel’s sur­re­al illus­tra­tions fea­tur­ing women float­ing in the water (or some mys­te­ri­ous blue-gray void). These sim­i­lar full-bod­ied fig­ures make an appear­ance in her newest series called En Femení (trans­la­tion: In the For­est).  Here, the paper char­ac­ters nav­i­gate through the thick brush. It’s def­i­nite­ly rem­i­nis­cent of the tale of Adam and Eve—giv­en the nudi­ty and fruit—but it’s a con­tem­po­rary twist on a com­mon theme, and it still makes us ques­tion who these peo­ple are and their moti­va­tions for being in the woods.

For­mal­ly, I like how Sonia has inte­grat­ed real objects into the com­po­si­tion, cre­at­ing a dio­ra­ma of sorts—it’s as if she’s set the stage for dra­mat­ic tales.