Amulets and talismans
Series of objects produced from donations of textile and sewing materials, remnants from my studio, kitchen fruits (tamarind, lemons, orange peels, cashews), common stones, and rock salt stones.
Donations are generally made by relatives of deceased individuals, including inheritances from deceased family members of my own. They consist of fabrics, embroidered towels, buttons, sewing boxes, threads, scraps; all sorts of a particular type of knick-knacks kept for years by women who enjoy sewing and handicrafts.
Throughout the year 2020, when we had to deal with an enormous number
of deaths, I began to perceive these pieces stored in boxes in my studio as treasures, pieces of affection crystallized in time, lives encapsulated in the form of objects – something with which someone
who has passed away maintained strong relationships of love, joy, and aesthetic complicity, to the extent that they were kept for many, many years.
By assembling some parts, I united people who did not have the opportunity to meet and who, in this invented prolongation, were weaving relationships. A prolongation of a presence, but not on the same plane; I invented another plane, where existence could unfold. This is how the nightgown of a great-aunt found the buttons from a friend's mother, and the bag from another friend's family. Integrating the assemblies, rock salt stones.
Rock salt is a type of crystal mined in underground excavations. It forms under
a rare set of geological conditions when shallow seas spread over extensive areas of continental crust and, after long periods of water evaporation, crystallize into rock form.
The rock salt stones used in Amulets and Talismans come from a region where such
rock formation dates back to a geological period of 96 million years.
Ordinarily used for culinary purposes, this rock salt is a crystal forged thousands of
years ago and is a living stone, breathing and exchanging humidity with the environment. During the process of making this work, I noticed that the salt breathes with the
humidity in the air, altering the properties
of the composition materials by oxidizing metals, salinizing fabrics, and stiffening threads; and that, when placing the stones on a table or on the wall, this humidity releases lines of salty water, transparent and almost imperceptible to an inattentive eye or to the camera lens.
Amulets and talismans are objects of power.
Donations are generally made by relatives of deceased individuals, including inheritances from deceased family members of my own. They consist of fabrics, embroidered towels, buttons, sewing boxes, threads, scraps; all sorts of a particular type of knick-knacks kept for years by women who enjoy sewing and handicrafts.
Throughout the year 2020, when we had to deal with an enormous number
of deaths, I began to perceive these pieces stored in boxes in my studio as treasures, pieces of affection crystallized in time, lives encapsulated in the form of objects – something with which someone
who has passed away maintained strong relationships of love, joy, and aesthetic complicity, to the extent that they were kept for many, many years.
By assembling some parts, I united people who did not have the opportunity to meet and who, in this invented prolongation, were weaving relationships. A prolongation of a presence, but not on the same plane; I invented another plane, where existence could unfold. This is how the nightgown of a great-aunt found the buttons from a friend's mother, and the bag from another friend's family. Integrating the assemblies, rock salt stones.
Rock salt is a type of crystal mined in underground excavations. It forms under
a rare set of geological conditions when shallow seas spread over extensive areas of continental crust and, after long periods of water evaporation, crystallize into rock form.
The rock salt stones used in Amulets and Talismans come from a region where such
rock formation dates back to a geological period of 96 million years.
Ordinarily used for culinary purposes, this rock salt is a crystal forged thousands of
years ago and is a living stone, breathing and exchanging humidity with the environment. During the process of making this work, I noticed that the salt breathes with the
humidity in the air, altering the properties
of the composition materials by oxidizing metals, salinizing fabrics, and stiffening threads; and that, when placing the stones on a table or on the wall, this humidity releases lines of salty water, transparent and almost imperceptible to an inattentive eye or to the camera lens.
Amulets and talismans are objects of power.
2023
Sculpture
mixed media
variable dimensions
textile materials, studio
remnants, fruits, common stones, feathers, and rock salt stones.
Sculpture
mixed media
variable dimensions
textile materials, studio
remnants, fruits, common stones, feathers, and rock salt stones.