Location: United States
I am a sculptor and multi-media artist, working primarily in glass, ceramics and photography. For the past 10 years I’ve focused my artwork on two issues: disabilities and violence against women and children.
My career in visual arts began when I was seven when I started working with ceramics where I grew up in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In pursuit of my path as an artist, over the years I’ve added new skills to my repertoire, including glasswork and photography. I use my 30 years of experience with ceramics to confront the challenges of working with glass to create socially conscious collections of multimedia pieces. My precise hands-on glass process uses techniques such as casting, fusing, kiln forming and a variety of finishing techniques.
Growing up in a large city in one of the largest developing nations, I became acutely aware of Brazil’s social issues from a young age. All my life, I’ve seen Brazil’s beauty as well as its dark side. I see marvelous landscapes, architecture, soulful music, and delicious food in the shadow of violence and extreme socio-economic inequality, which still plague Brazilian society.
My work aims to raise awareness of the pain inflicted by the commodification of women from a young age—something that is around the world in a variety of ways. My intention is to drive more people to think and act to promote the protection of women and children in vulnerable situations.
Ciranda, an installation with seven girls' dresses playing ring-around-the-rosie, using chains to replace the hands, evoking the violence committed against children.
Ciranda later developed into Project Cantigas, in which the relation between sublimation and violence becomes more complex.
This is an installation with three full-size children's ceramic dresses in a row, occupied by invisible bodies. The dresses are tied together with a padlocked iron chain, which represents child labor.
This installation, a full-size child's long ceramic and glass dress, stuck behind iron bars, suggests an over protected child, repressed emotionally and excluded from community life, leading her to fear of the outside world to the point of not knowing how to interact with it.
This installation is a full-size child's long ceramic dressin a Cage.