Cristina Mato: Selected works, 2018-2021
I like to think of what I do as sewing with clay. The thin slabs of clay are the fabric, which I cut in-to threads to build structures full of seams, very much like a seamstress working at her mannequin.
Paperclay gives me the possibility to defy the laws of physics and push my pieces to the limit, using the least possible support. The colour helps define the pattern and adds drama to the composition. For a brief period of time, my pieces stand proud and symmetric, ready to face the kiln, which will make them more humble and do its magic to give them movement and flow. The light will do the rest, printing on the wall a net of shadows trying to escape from the seams.
Sewing with clay. A whole revelation to see how my childhood games between scraps of fabric, pins, and scissors have shaped my artistic expression. I find joy in the creative process, the fact that from a formless lump of clay I can build something original and meaningful that was not there be-fore, or better still, it was already there, just waiting to become 3D.
Photo captions:
- Trama, 2018, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 34x55x16cm
- Defeat, 2020, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 30x27x25cm
- Magnet, 2020, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 28x44x22cm
- Not a vase, 2019, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 32x20x20cm
- Off the Wall, 2021, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 75x65x14cm
- Gravity (detail), 2019, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 90x115x12cm
- Orbit, 2018, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 32x26x26cm
- Reverence, 2019, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 36x46x18cm
- Tirante, 2019, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 36x55x14cm
- Untitled, 2021, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 39x20x20cm
- Vacío II (detail), 2021, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 34x21x21cm
- Vacío II, 2021, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 34x21x21cm
- Vacío, 2021, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 42x24x24cm
- Weave, 2019, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 19x36x32cm
- Gravity, 2019, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 90x115x12cm
- Holding On, 2018, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 25x31x21cm
- Infinito, 2019, stoneware paper clay and pigments, 37x87x10cm
