Jacqueline Schapiro: Selected works, 2018-2024
Clay, porcelain, and lava. Human beings have worked with these materials for 10,000 years, expressing an ancestral language of Indigenous memory in Chile by blending contemporary aesthetics with the Chilean landscape and the traces left by the flow of lava. The wrapped bodies of the “Chinchorro” culture from northern Chile have inspired me in terms of materiality and construction methods. These mummies have survived from 8,000 BC until today, despite the forces of nature and the corrosion of time.
I instinctively transferred the materials and the construction forms they used to my work, incorporating volcanic sand, clay, and porcelain into plates of different thicknesses or solid forms that give volume to my pieces, intentionally providing an irregular finish. I gather waste elements in the workspace: dust, soil, bits of dried clay, pigments, etc. These elements stand out and beautify, creating intricate surfaces on the artwork. Recycling of matter, a transformation of the same.
My relationship with the artwork lies between the passage of time and the knowledge of our country, both territorial (nature) and cultural. The relationships of similarities and contrasts of lands, cultures, and textures will always be manifested in different series. My observation and relationship with the materiality of our territory have led my work to reflect upon it.
Every sculpture is linked to space. Ceramics, in particular, allow for playing with particles, structures, and surfaces, depending on the selected clays. It is rigid and stony but capable of being molded organically.
Plunging my hands into the clay, shaping, and texturing the paste is a deeply satisfying experience for me. I am passionate about highlighting the origin of the material, so I make sure to leave parts of the clay in their original and visible state.
Nature’s shapes, colors, and textures, with their perfect asymmetry, are a constant source of attraction for my imagination and sensitivity. Although rugged landscapes and igneous formations may seem chaotic, they have been shaped over time by the sedimentation of material that influences stratification, vegetation, and the environment.
Ceramics gives me freedom of expression, valuing and dignifying the sublimity of nature. Through the artwork, I seek to replicate it, dignify what I observe, and create beauty. I enhance it with the materials and elements I use to work, along with the random passage of fire that acts in the kiln. The flame passes unpredictably and casually over the pieces, leaving its mark and highlighting the scars the clay work undergoes from the beginning to its final form.
Captions
- DESERTIC ALGAE XXI, 2024, Clay, Reduction firing, 48 x 45 x 37 cm
- RAINBOW VALLEY, 2018, Porcelain, clay, copper, and volcanic sand, Reduction firing, 61 x 42 x 30 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- WHITE ALGAE XIII, 2020, Porcelain and volcanic sand, Oxidation firing, 35 x 32 x 21 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- DESERTIC ALGAE VII, 2023, Porcelain, clay, and volcanic sand, Reduction firing, 61 x 42 x 30 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- BANDAGED BODIES I, 2019, Porcelain, clays, and volcanic sand, Reduction firing, 33 x 20 x 11 cm
- BANDAGED BODIES II, 2019, Porcelain, clays, and volcanic sand, Oxidation firing, 16 x 16 x 57,5 cm
- BANDAGED BODIES III, 2019, Porcelain, clays, and volcanic sand, Oxidation firing, 16 x 16 x 68 cm
- BANDAGED BODIES IV, 2019, Porcelain, clays, and volcanic sand, Oxidation firing, 38 x 18 x 57 cm
- MEDIUM CONTRAST ARCH XV, 2023, Porcelain and clays, Reduction firing, 41 x 15 x 21 cm
- SMALL CONTRASTED CIRCLE XVII, 2023, Clays and porcelain, Reduction firing, 23 x 20 x 20 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- MEDIUM LAMINATED CIRCLE XXV, 2019, Clays, Reduction firing, 48 x 16 x 45 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- MEDIUM LAMINATED CIRCLE XXVI, 2019, Clays, Reduction firing, 46 x 17 x 46 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- HIGH LAMINATED CONTRAST ARCH XVI, 2023, Porcelain, clays, and volcanic sand, Reduction firing, 73 x 17 x 34 cm
- MEDIUM CONTRASTED CIRCLE XVI, 2023, Clays and porcelain, Reduction firing, 31 x 15 x 30 cm
- BOTANICAL ALGAE XV, 2022, Porcelain, clay, and volcanic sand, Reduction firing, 39 x 50 x 43 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- BANDAGED BODIES V, 2019, Porcelain, clays, and volcanic sand, Oxidation firing, 34 x 18 x 57 cm
- LARGE CONTRASTED CIRCLE III, 2019, Clays and porcelain, Reduction firing, 36 x 12 x 34 cm
- DANCING CIRCLE IV, 2019, Clays, Reduction firing, 35 x 13 x 46 cm
- LAMINATED CIRCLE XIX, 2024, Clays, Reduction firing, 48 x 16 x 56 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
- LARGE LAMINATE ARCH X, 2023, Clays, Reduction firing, 21 x 35 x 62 cm. Photo by Reuben Hirnheimer
