2023
Digital photography diptych
The diptych Ariana, La Reina de Copas [Ariana, The Queen of Cups], explores duality and feminine identity, using still-life conventions translated from painting into contemporary photography. The photographs El Orden and El Caos [The Order and The Chaos] present a feminist commentary on identity, sexuality, and intuition, using the symbolism of fine art, where the value of intuition is intertwined through the esoteric.
In the tarot tradition, the Queen of Cups is a figure associated with emotions, intuition, and empathy. As a feminine archetype, she represents emotional wisdom, openness, generosity, and compassion. In the diptych, the card appears tinted in deep red and pink tones, suggesting the coexistence between strength and vulnerability, between innocence and maturity. The refraction of the card, with its original colours distorted when passing through a bottle containing water, reflects on how cultural narratives hide or veil the essence of feminine power. Figs, symbols of abundance, sexuality, fertility, and knowledge in classical European painting, reinforce the connection between the feminine and the natural. The empty cups, unable to fulfill their function of containing liquids, hold the image of the Queen of Cups, who always has her feet submerged in the fluidity of the water beneath her throne.
Ariana, La Reina de Copas, reflects the tension between stability and instability. This duplicity reveals the complexity of femininity, representing not only control and structure, but also the power inherent in chaos, the mystical, and the liberating. Thus, the work suggests that feminine power, hidden in the layers of the everyday and the esoteric, is always present, waiting to be revealed and reimagined.