The Lost Secret

Waldrada Onzea ‘s work includes , besides paintings, also spatial installations.
She uses a lot of different materials such as latex-rubber, plastic, iron, plexi-glass, organic materials, found objects, bister, …
ONZEA experiments with space, form and matter in a constant transformation and ravel of the human body.
She’s thematizing the losing of identity and the vulnerability of the human being. The painting ‘A Family Affair’ shows an intimate family portrait where the uniqueness of each individual merges into a larger entity, the family, posing as a small close community, but behind that, there remains a secret, sometimes forever hidden.
This fascination for the secret is the base of her work. In an odd and captivating universe it seems that the figure in her paintings is veiled, has disappeared. Like we’re witnesses of a coming robbery of the human picture.
From the 2D paintings, more spatial installations appear, especially latex-copies (casts) of dolls and organic materials.
So she based a series on the old forensic research, with material traces and identification. Her spatial installations represent the outer layer of the body, which doesn’t give away its secret. They even create a completely new identity. The question is ‘what do people do with their secrets and traces left behind ?’ How are those secrets going to live their own life?
Her work is created intuitively, usually from an idea that builds on a previous work. This leads to series, which, by the repetitive use of materials, not only in terms of content but also formally constitute a large installation. An installation that is never completed, a constantly evolving work-in-progress.
The experiment is central, but depending on the subject, she uses different materials.
Waldrada Onzea paints a fascinating, hidden world. In today's transparent society, the secret threatens to lose its intensity and value. In her work there is always an elusive rest, making the entirety bathed in an atmosphere of secrecy. Simultaneously, she handles this in a playful way, in an ever-expanding exploration of the imagination.

Curator Eva Steynen - © 2010
Born and working in Antwerp, Belgium