Sandra Gea
Embodied Collage Practices
I experience the act of creation as a sacred ritual that invokes the cathartic, holistic healing power of storytelling.
Through the craft of meticulous hand-cut collages, I weave the themes of body memory, resilience and feminine identity into thought-provoking visual narratives where I reclaim innocence, wilderness and sensuality as natural states of being, overshadowed by sociocultural conditioning.
My work exists in conversation with the archetype of the medial woman, she who bridges worlds -priestess, goddess and medicine woman.
The mythological characters of Medusa, Persephone and Cassandra infuse my practice with the spirit of the exiled maiden standing in her power, owning her shadow and the gift of her sacred wound.
The impulse to create from the rawest form of energy is central to my artistic inquiry. With the body as crucible, the emotional and sensory substance of memory is extracted and alchemised into pictures. This inner shamanic journey continuously expands my consciousness, sensitivity and depth - a reappropriation of the body as territory and identity of my own.
Nature, dreams, archaeology and my visceral connection to the ancient goddess' sanctuaries of Greece, Malta and Turkey are my main sources of inspiration.
My multilingual brain plays a key role when processing materials: meaning, symbol, metaphor and colloquial expressions are deconstructed and rearranged into new codes of interpretation - an unexpected and sometimes provoking combination of signs and images in the spirit of Dada.
My art celebrates the courage and resilience of the human journey to wholeness and freedom through cycles of death and rebirth. I wish that in engaging with the sacred space in each artwork, viewers find solace, empowerment, and a renewed connection to their personal mythology, their natural environment and the human collective.