Arte y Joya Winner's interview for Contraste newspaper - November edition
1. Let's go back to your adolescence-youth, why the decision to study jewelry?
It took me a long time to make that decision. I was almost 30 when I started having classes.
Although I ended up having a degree in Mathematics, I always kept a strong connection with art in my life. One day that connection was the only thing that made sense.
I could not see myself as a singer or a painter. I was attracted to sculpture, but it didn’t seem feasible in terms of scale. I was never a big wearer of jewelry, but I always was curious about it whenever I traveled even buying some pieces.
Jewelry as an art form that could tell a lot about the maker and wearer. I liked that it was something to be worn and publicly shown, that it connected people and even can even start a conversation.
2. What have you found over the years in it?
When I was training in Ar.Co it was like coming home. It felt comfortable. I was free to explore all sorts of aspects of this field.
After graduating, it allowed me more and more to join my love for science and art while expressing my ideas.
It also made me more aware of the foot print I leave in this world, either in the making and conceptual process.
3. You were trained at Ar.Co and joined the same center as a teacher in 2016. Why did you go from being an apprentice to leading young people?
I still remember how happy I was the first day I went to my Primary School. The prospect of learning new things in school was amazing. And in that school, we had a teacher, but we also had to teach our classmates. It was not a traditional school, of course!
I attended a more traditional school system later on, but I occasionally I still had teachers like that. So I guess I had been teaching others for a long time.
With my work leading me to techniques and places that others knew little about, people started asking me to give workshops and later on classes.
It was an obvious path that also has a long tradition in this field and it offered me a extra income.
It gives me great pleasure to see what my students can accomplish and gain confidence with the added bonus of always learning things from them too.
4. In your career and in your work, you stand out for a constant investigation of material and color. What are your fetish materials?
My fetish materials are paper, cashew lacquer, titanium, niobium, aluminum, copper, steel and Perspex in no particular order.
5. And why this incessant search for color in its purest form?
I think it has something to do with the light of the cities I lived in, my grandmother paintings, my childhood drawings and the early exposure to some odd color combinations in everyday objects.
Color and light are always connected. Light affects the perception of color, but color, by it self, can also change the perception of things. Just look at nature.
6. As the winner of Arte y Joya International Award 2020, what do you feel about this special year?
Oddly enough, I feel that 2020 is a reset year. On one end the award is a recognition of all the hard work done so far, but it also feels like a new start.
7. The winning piece is a necklace from the Paradisum series, what inspired you?
Having Baroque Music and Nature as a starting point, each piece is the result of repeating and combining the same type of aluminum, copper or titanium element. These folded units are organized, like in origami, to create organic forms in which the geometry of the compositions is hidden when the metal is forged.
The organic aspect of the pieces is also reinforced by the marks left by the hammer, by the mobility of the non-welded elements that compose them and finally by the coloring coating or anodized color of each piece.
8. Your latest collection is entitled "Play in case of emergency". We know that you thought about it before the pandemic. Why this theme, what does it suggest and what do you want to suggest with it?
When I think about it, although it came about from a challenge for an exhibition, it was a natural sequence of “Badges of Beauty” series in which I used a colorful and very fast to work with material to question beauty.
This series title seams suited for this time but was not motivated by the current pandemic. Covid-19 was barely in the news when I started this project.
When I look around, I find people don’t value enough Playtime. Also, many think that one has to be very serious when working. This series gave me the opportunity to explore these ideas.
9. In addition to the award given by Grupo Duplex, you have received numerous awards. Which ones are you particularly proud of?
The three awards I received are all very special to me. I have a difficult time selecting one. They are special because of the circumstances in which they were awarded. One while I was still a student, one more than 10 years after I graduated in an international event with work it took me a long time do start doing and the last one in an international event in this odd 2020.
Awards always come as a surprise. I had a couple of favorites in the “Arte Y Joya” this year, which I thought were likely winners. There is a lot of great work being done out there.
10. Finally, in which exhibitions have you participated or are you participating this year and why?
In 2020, I participated in 4 group exhibitions, a few fundraising events in Portugal and abroad.
In Reverso, I was challenged by the gallery owner to be part of “Gogoísme II” where I presented the first “Play in Case of Emergency” pieces.
I was part of the first exhibition of two new galleries. It is a very special thing to be chosen to be a starting artist in a gallery and I was very pleased with this new projects. I presented “In Paradisum” pieces in Carlo Lucidi Gallery in Rome and “Play in Case of Emergency” and “In Paradisum II” pieces in House on Mars during the London Design Week 2020.
The last one was a first too. As part of my award by Assemblage during Artistar 2019, pieces from the “In Paradisum” series were part of the Romanian Jewelry Week 1.0., the first of hopefully many to come jewelry fairs in Bucharest.
The fundraising events were a small way to contribute to the relief of the Covid-19 emergency.
In 2020 I am also collaborating in the Hand Metal Project, which unfolds in October 2020. This project by Iris Eichenberg and Jimena Ríos aims to honor all watching caregivers, nurses and doctors giving all they can to our communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the end of the year, I will have another group exhibition in House on Mars in London.
I also have been invited to be part of a group exhibition in Portugal, but it’s to early to say more about that.
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