I had a strange Caribbean grandmother who used to buy a multitude of European and Asian ornaments. They were the most glittering, colorful and surprising objects she found in the port of Salgar in Colombia.
She also collected on the beach, pieces smoothed by the sea, fish bones, shells, and logs.
My grandmother had a huge tropical bird cage in the courtyard of her house. The courtyard was all sandy earth, you could walk inside the cage. Huge birds of bright colors and strident songs flew and jumped inside. I still keep in a wooden box various feathers collected in the cage during my vacation childhood at the home of my Caribbean grandmother.
With all those ornaments that my grandmother bought, with her collection at the seaside and with huge feathers from the birdcages, in her house, she created cheerful and unusual floral compositions, arranged in large vases and sumptuous scenographies inspired by those of the palace of Louis XIV, which were represented in an old book she purchased at the market of Cartagena de Indias.
The magic of my grandmother’s living room is still present in my memory. Today, to celebrate her vision of European art and her desire to bring this overseas magnificence into her life, the IMPOSSIBLE BOUQUETS sculptural series was born.
The work in the photo was completed in three months, using porcelain paper, pigments and Nerikomi, an ancient and complex Asian mosaic inlay technique, used in some of the leaves of the composition.
All the leaves were cut from a sheet, finished one by one, mounted on the body of the sculpture and textured by hand.
After slow drying, the piece was fired, first at 1000 °C to correct and refine and then fired at 1260 °C.
Finally, a further smoothing was done.
This is my first story of the common thread that connects South American Magic Realism to European splendor.
