Cecilia

Bonilla

Cecilia Bonilla works from classic images of yoga poses of female figures in conjunction with found imagery from vintage insect encyclopedias. These images are strategically placed to obscure and supplant the subjects' physical features, allowing for the prominence of "nature" in lieu of their bodily and facial characteristics.

I am regularly concerned with the physical quality of printed (mass-produced) images, how after being touched or handled (then often then discarded) they appear vulnerable to new interpretations. Consistently I seek scarcity in the amount of material used – often re-assembling only one image or collating two in a ‘simple’ way. ‘Collaging’ allows me to subvert an image’s original meaning whereby through making subtle alterations or amendments, I reconfigure, pervert and dismantle its original function.

Cecilia Bonilla

Bonilla’s multidisciplinary practice spans across collage, photography, video and sculpture, through to larger installations and site-specific interventions. In her compositions Bonilla often appropriates mass-produced imagery from sources such as discarded books, fashion magazines and catalogues. Taking this existing imagery she subverts its original meaning through subtle alterations or amendments which reconfigure, pervert and dismantle the original image source. Throughout her work, themes of domesticity, the ideals of beauty, ‘life-style’, and other social constructs are questioned, corrupted and undermined through minimal, yet skilful assemblage and modification.

Courtesy of Cecilia Bonilla

Cecilia Bonilla was born in 1979 Montevideo, Uruguay. She is currently based in Margate, United Kingdom.