Inspired by the painting Scheherezade by Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte, visual artist Laura Aguilera seeks to reinterpret it for the modern age through a tastefully orchestrated art film. This is evident the moment the screen flashes with cutouts from Magritte’s painting in question, before segueing into an ephemeral plane that exists seemingly in a vacuum from reality––where a woman describes through a series of questions, what she sees in her mind’s eye. With echoes that reverberate through this dreamlike plane juxtaposed with fairy-tale pastels and misty spectres, providing little in the ways of sensible reason to latch on to, surrealism plays out loudly in the digital age through Aguilera’s piece.
In conversation with Laura, she described the production phase of creating this art film to be particularly challenging, especially in the translating of surrealist visuals into her medium of choice. “To achieve the appropriate visuals through the medium and often forgotten about the art of makeup, was and always would be one of the more challenging visual effects,” she tells us. But with the help of make-up savant Linda Azma, who toiled for some time in tackling the challenge set before her, the transformation of model Maria Giulia into the unnerving beauty of René Magritte’s Scheherezade is in itself a work of art.
She also expressed a deep appreciation for the team of talent that helped in the creation of this project, each of which lent their expertise to truly translate and depict their subject matter of choice despite the daunting challenges that come along in interpreting and translating a genre of art that delved into the subconscious. In warping reality, Laura cited an emphasis on achieving a colour palette and visual style that reflected the elusive and ethereal qualities of a dream, saying that, “it (the visuals) was not real and that the themes of lucidity and the cross between reality and the subconscious would be ever-present in the finished video,” leaving audiences to debate on where the line is drawn between harsh sobriety and ethereal fantasy.
It’s hard to argue against the finesse that Laura and her team have shown in the creation of Scheherezade, and we wholly expect to see more from her and her collective. Her advice for those aspiring to create their own ventures in art? One is to always keep in mind the final goal and visuals that you aim to get. Two: to keep developing, researching, and exploring former ideas from previous projects.
Watch her film below:
Photography – Laura Aguilera @laura.algr
Creative Direction – Raquel Fernandez @balaclavachic
MUA – Linda Azma @odd_turtle
Model – Maria Giulia Casco @cscmgl
Showroom: Verv London
Brands:
Palomo Spain
Situationist
Window00
