Interview to the artist by Rachelle Gryn Brettler, from our Anniversary Book
I try to interpret nature — flowers, seeds, pods, leaves, branches. I like all the elements but I do not copy nature. I collect everything I find interesting — I have boxes with different seeds, especially from Brazil, where I was born. During my annual trip to Goiânia, a very green place, in the mornings I walk in the park where I find most of my seeds.
When I am preparing for a show, I dream a lot. I think my dreams help reveal answers as sometimes when I am not happy with the work, after a few weeks of thinking and dreaming, out of the blue I find the solution.
The place I grew up in was a smallholding with plenty of land and great vegetation. I use to immerse myself under the many mango and guava trees, climbing them, playing with their fruits, twigs, pebbles, plants, mud. I loved playing barefoot.This direct contact with the natural world as a child, inspired me to return to nature as an artist.
My background is in architecture. When I plan the work, I have drawings and lots of studies to see it from a distance, sideways or close up. Sometimes I need to see it in three dimensions so I build a maquette of the work. It is all planned.
I work in porcelain – it is such a malleable material. It is porcelain paper clay, which is much more flexible than pure porcelain. I work with very thin pieces. I am delighted when someone looks at my work and they think it is paper.
I use pigment mixed into the porcelain body to create a gradient of colours. I prefer white, white on white or black on black. I also enjoy working with shades of grey, sometimes blues. Recently I started to use yellow, very yolky yellow on a few pieces and I like the result. In architecture I always used yellow to complement grey objects, a nice splash of colour.
I am fascinated by repetition, when you have one thing it can be nice but if you put two hundred together, it just changes the way it looks and it becomes an installation, a group, clusters. I much prefer the result of hundreds of pieces put together than only one. It might be overwhelming, but I do have a team that works with me. However, I am the one who shapes every single piece with my hand. Each single element is different than the previous one and that is why it is never boring. Even if I do an edition of five, each single flower will be different. Often I am commissioned to create large scale installations with many small components.
When I moved to London I was working with geometric shapes. I discovered porcelain and started to make more curvaceous forms before moving on to botanical shapes. I had to choose between the side of me that was more geometric and that which was totally organic. I could not see them working together, they were so different, like works made by two different people. I chose the organic path.