Lorna Bauer

In 1932, Walter Benjamin sojourned in Ibiza, where he wrote about the island’s fauna and flora in a style alternating between considerate description and poetic abstraction. A recent work by artist Lorna Bauer referencing Benjamin’s time in Spain also bears the nameIbiza : a long columnar mobile composed of various pieces of coloured glass interlinked with bronze-cast bamboo branches and, petrified in transparent resin, fig slices and sprigs of thyme. By juxtaposing found, sculpted, or cast materials, the Ibiza assemblage contrasts with the photographic work for which Bauer has become known. In recent works, she has put photography in the strict sense aside to focus on works oscillating between objects and their representation. Presented together in the exhibition space, images and sculptures evoke imprints, captures, mouldings, and traces. Bauer also pays close attention to the patina of the sculptural works: the green bronze foliage in Bromeliad (Margaret Mee) #1, for example, evokes the plant’s primal nature. In this sense, Bauer’s works, combining mimesis with a sensitive use of materials, share an affinity with the tone of some of Benjamin’s narratives.