Pain

   In 1989 between the months of September and November she created built the series The pain of love shows the bitter core building poetically comparing illusions with nature to death in 15 photographs in 4x5 chromium. Vilma Slomp exhibited this work in São Paulo at the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture and at the Fundação Cultura de Curitiba in 1993 and 1998.

critical text

Holland in Curitiba - Angélica de Moraes /1993

   Vilma Slomp's pictures remind us of the XV century Dutch art. At the time, some artists such as Willem Kalf, specialize in faithful reproducing (today one could it a photographic or hyper-realistic reproduction) still-lifes. Savory fruits, game, crustaceous and fish covered canvas, mixed with fine porcelain and crystal, celebrating pleasure and life. Light fancifully shaped every outline, revealing the transparency of the sections an orange, or the glow of a silver knife rolled up in the curves of an apple peel. But, on a closer look, this idyllic scene reveal petty perversities. Diminutive insects and worms strolled over food and the linen tablecloths, bringing reality to this paradisiac and opulent scenery, reminding the viewer that the luscious fruit is just one step away from rotting. And that life not only holds pleasures, but also the inevitable relationship with pain and death.

   "Pain" - the series of photos Vilma made in her studio between September and November 1989, coincided with a difficult period in her personal life. In a sort of exorcism, the photographer, armed with her camera, going beyond personal therapy, built a set of photos full of artistic value. The pictures draw up an itinerary at the same time intimate and unreal, where the metaphor of sensations crystallize into insects or nails, bunches of twisted fibers (muscles?), or metal grids that tear and grasp.

   As in the ancient Dutch painting, light is the great protagonist, skillfully outlining every form. A lucid light that under false appearance of a beautiful picture, probes and excavates the wound. Again like the Dutch artists, the metaphor of the reality proposed by Vima is built under artificial circumstances. The painters used their studios, she uses hers. The fruits of the earth are isolated from their context, far from landscape and nature. That's when the photographer shows her absolute technical skill getting creative and touching results. Vilma masters subjects that involve balanced composition and expressive lighting. These attributes are revealed in this series of photos, where the artist once again why she is one of the talents in art photography in Brazil. Even and especially, when she lets herself be led by emotions.

Angélica de Moraes /1993