Veronica Restrepo is a ceramic artist who uses the plasticity of clay to craft curvaceous forms that challenge the line between functionality and aesthetics. Often inspired by alternative realities, anthropology, archaeology and mystery, her work explores and deconstructs concepts of femininity and otherness. Veronica aims to bring the viewer’s attention to the way cultural objects, like ceramics, can become documents that are codified and exchanged for the future.
ARTWORK
My ‘Poporo’: The Container of Life and Death, 2019
Ceramic sculpture with plinth
Price £500
This piece is a hand built sculpture inspired by the coca plant, the Quimbaya ‘Golden Poporo’. The form references pre-Columbian ceramics and female symbology. Drawing parallels between the overexploitation of Colombia’s precious resources and female vulnerability in a predominantly patriarchal society, the piece has been finished in a gold coloured copper and manganese glaze. It is an introspective reflection of the artists own personal experience of violence against women, during her time growing up Colombia and working with young women in care in the UK. Its form explores the concept of women as containers, fragile yet strong to the core, the containers of life and death.
“Reflecting on menstrual taboos, I want to recreate a contemporary symbol of ownership, reclaiming my uterus and menstruation, as an intrinsic quality that has been interpreted, suppressed and controlled by men. It is a symbolic act to redefine societal constrictions and exemplify how from something so intimate, societies have been determining power structures.
