Voyages through absence and presence.

• Author: Windhausen, Rodolfo

"What remains compelling in Liliana Porter's work is the sense of frailty, of ephemerality and transience in the constitution of her images and subjects. Spare surfaces across which fragments, incidental objects, a thin thread, an open book, a broken vessel, miniature figures or images torn from the pages of Western art are strewn as if debris, ruins or found objects. These images might be called survivors, yet by virtue of their association with other objects and images, or through a placement within spaces, surfaces and textures, they gain a resonance, reflecting back in the light of others as fields of intensities in the face of loss."

It is that constant tension between reality and image that holds the key to the works of Argentine painter and printmaker, Liliana Porter. Born in Buenos Aires in 1941, Porter has lived in New York since 1964. "What I question in all my work is whether what we call real is more real than its image or its idea," says Porter. She believes that looking at her work is "like seeing a movie with the lights on ... the viewer is unable to surrender himself completely to the illusionary space because he is aware of that other side of reality."

This apparently simple concept conceals a complex reinterpretation of our surroundings, which is particularly evident in the artist's latest works. In these, Porter uses collage, photography and assemblages of elements together with more traditional techniques, "piling layers of reality one on top of another." Indeed, her approach to her craft resembles that of the renowned writer, Jorge Luis Borges. Just as Borges illuminates the art of non-writing (as when the storyteller creates through omission), Porter creates presence in negative space. She even shares Borges' artistic sense of irony, admitting that his device of interrupting the narrative to comment on the fact that he is writing can be compared to her frequent references to the tools of the painter. Sometimes these tools even appear physically on the surface of her work.

Critics have pointed out that Porter's work is both disturbing and perverse in the way it reveals to the viewers the illusion or trap they have fallen into. That game, which tautens the powers of perception, is not just typical of Borges, but of the Argentine nature in general. "In this sense," says Porter, "I think my painting is very Argentine."

Displaying regional as well as universal influences, Porter's art mirrors the cultural duality of her...