Muerto de Amor an art exhibition by SAL

These three pieces are the work I will be showing at the exhibition

Muerto de Amor

presented by SAL

Spanish Artists in London

Two Tied,

2 botellas de porcelana unidas por un cordon

2 porcelain bottles tied with a cord

Stigmata

Porcelain head inspired by religious wooden painted sculptures.

Cabeza de porcelana al estilo de las tallas policromadas de imagenes de santos.

La Caja de Bernada Alba: (let me put in a good word for Bernarda Alba)

We think of Bernarda Alba as hard and unloving, almost cruel, a tyrant to her daughters, servants and even to her own mother. But in my opinion she was actually suffering from lack of love. He husband dead, her own mother insane, her neighbours hostile and her daughters desperate to find husbands and leave her behind. She is bereft of love and if she does not have love she must at least keep her pride. Bitter and unloved, she appears to scream “if you do not love me you will hate me!” consequently hardens her soul (se encontrarán con mi pedernal) and responds with tyrannical arrogance, she cannot allow herself any tenderness towards those around her for fear of falling apart!

Nos imaginamos a Bernarda Alba como una mujer dura, desabrida casi cruel que tiraniza a sus hijas, a su criada y hasta a su madre. En mi opinión Bernarda sufría de desamor. Su marido ha muerto, su madre está loca, sus vecinos no la quieren bien y sus hijas están deseando casarse y dejarla sola. Bernarda se ve privada de todo tipo de amor y sin amor ni amigos solo le queda su orgullo. Amargada por esa falta de amor parece gritar ¡si no me amas me odiarás! Como consecuencia endurece su alma (se encontrarán con mi pedernal) y responde con orgullo déspota, no puede enternecerse con los que la rodean por miedo a desmoronarse.

La Caja de Bernarda Alba

arrangement with porcelain pieces and dried flowers on canvas

perfiles de porcelana y flores secas sobre lienzo

SAL (SPANISH ARTISTS IN LONDON) presenta

Muerto de Amor exposición-homenaje a Federico García Lorca

Institute for Indian Art and Culture "BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN", West Kensington, Londres

Del 23 de septiembre al 10 de octubre 2010

SAL (SPANISH ARTISTS IN LONDON) presents

Muerto de Amor a homage to the work of Federico García Lorca

Institute for Indian Art and Culture "BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN", West Kensington, London

23rd September – 10^th October 2010

Hand Made

HAND MADE

From: 15th October to 7th November 2010

At: Advocate Galleries, 39 Church Road,Wimbledon Village,

London SW19 5DQ

for further information contact:

loli@cardenoso.com or trinidadball@yahoo.co.uk

Hand Made is a collaboration between two artists, Trinidad Ball (painter) and Loli Cardeñoso (ceramic artist) who having found inspiration in each other's work, are now engaged in creating a collection that reflects this cross pollination. The result will be an exhibition in which 2D and 3D artwork bounce off each other.

We have chosen specific paintings by painters we admire as point of departure for some of our works. Other pieces in this exhibition are inspired by nature.

Still life by Giorgio Morandi
Still Life by Pablo Picasso
The Birth of Venus by Salvador Dali
Still life by Giorgio Morandi
some images of the work that can be seen at

Artists Statements

Trinidad: When I first saw Loli's work I had the strong impression of looking at a mirror image of my own work but in a different dimension. I liked her composition, the elegance of lines and the smoothness of her surfaces, and I liked her. The project has evolved slowly and out of interest and appreciation for each others's work. It has been necessary to spend time trying to understand each others's materials so as to gain an understanding of how ceramic art is made. This project aims to blur the boundaries between 2D and 3D art. It has made us think about our work through the eyes of the other and it has resulted in work which has been enriched by the exploration and cross- pollination of our respective dimensions.

Loli: My first impression of Trinidad's work was that she was concerned with the same thing as I was, ie. the relationship between individual forms and how the proximity to each other affects the way they look and the impression they give. This is probably the most abiding concern for all still life painters. She was also evidently influenced by the classical Spanish still life painters like Zurbaran, Sanchez Cotan and Melendez, which in a more tangential way also had influenced me. Even if it could be said that her work was about colour and mine was mostly while, I still felt we were chasing that same elusive and unstable relationship between between objects and the space they occupy.

(English below)

Cualquier tiempo pasado fue mejor…………. Si ahora es escombros………

Como muchos ya sabréis Michael Landy ha vuelto a las andadas. Esta vez en la South London Gallery donde ha creado “Art Bin” una caja de basura transparente gigantesca donde él y otros artistas han tirado algunas de sus propias obras que consideraron mal logradas.

Con cierto miedo de que Michael aceptara mi obra le mandé una foto de “Melting Down”, que efectivamente aceptó……….convirtiendo en realidad todos mis temores.

Allí fui y tiré desde lo alto, y con gran impulso, el pobre perfil malogrado que se rompió en 3 pedazos y se enterró lo más que pudo entre los escombros artísticos, con una cara más larga y una expresión más triste que nunca.

Eso de tirar así sin reparos algo que consideraba parte de mi obra (mas o menos lograda pero con un significado muy especifico) fue una experiencia sensacional, alegre y jubilosa, con un punto de liberación, que supongo será lo mismo que sienten los valencianos al quemar las figuras que hacen para las fallas. Me recordó vivamente las hogueras de San Juan y San Pedro que hacían en Valencia de Don Juan (bueno, creo que eran por San Juan y San Pedro pero no estoy segura, yo solo las presencié dos o tres veces y me causaron gran sensación)

Para que os hagáis mejor idea aquí van unas fotos.

The Art Bin

"Melting Down" can just be seen at the bottom of the bin.

Al fondo se ve "Melting Down" despues de su caida.

Ahi vaaaaaaa


Good bye Melting Down!!!!

!!!!Adios Melting Down.....caralarga!!!

As many of you will already know, Michael Landy is up to his old tricks again. This time at the South London Gallery where he has created “Art Bin”, a gigantic transparent rubbish bin, where he and other artists have thrown some of their own failed artwork.

With a certain amount of trepidation that Michael may accept my work, I sent him a picture of “Melting Down”, which he promptly accepted realizing all my fears!. In the South London Gallery, face to face with the huge transparent box full of artistic debris, I climbed the stairs and flung away “Melting Down” which broke into 3 pieces and buried itself amongst the failures in great haste.

It was an invigorating experience to throw away some of my work and I came home feeling elated and liberated in some way. I expect this is what they feel in Valencia when they burn the figures they have spent the whole year making for the ”Fallas”

Symbolic Portraits

You can commission your own portrait or that of an other person from £300. These portraits are set on a canvas and protected with a clear cover. They are composed of a mask of the person to be portraid, made in porcelain ,plus a number of items which can be "found" objects or porcelain objects and that in your view are relevant to the identity of the person portraid.

Here are a few pictures of my new work "symbolic portraits". You may commission your own portrait from £300.

La Caja de Barnarda Alba

Portrait of a painter

Press cuttings - Reseñas de prensa

You can read what the press said about our last exhibition...........

Podeis leer lo que dice la prensa sobre la ultima exposicion que tuvimos Trinidad y yo juntas. El Iberico es un periodico londinense de habla castellana y publico este articulo el 4 de noviembre 2010.

Elle Decoration

Elle Decoration

La Gaceta de los Negocios 1-10-2011

 

 

La Cronica de Leon Noviembre 2011

Botijos

The botijo is a traditional water container which used to be made of very porous eartheware to allow water to evaporate in the heat and keep the contents cold.

Si hablas castellano no te hace falta que te explique lo que es un botijo.

Mi metodo de construir un botijo consiste en formar en el torno dos mitades y luego unirlas para conseguir una forma mas o menos esferica a la que despues pego los demas elementos.

Mi method of making a botijo consists of 2 separate halfs thrown in the wheel which are later put together to make the body of the container to which I attach the rest of the elements.

Here is my article about the Botijo Museum published in London Potters Newsletter

Botijos: Keep cool in a hot climate!
Travelling around Leon (Northen Spain) this summer I came across a splendid museum, “El Museo del Botijo”. Housed in a 14th century castle/palace in Toral de los Guzmanes, Leon, it contains more than 2,500 examples of this peculiarly Spanish water container. Interestingly each item is clearly labelled with its region or country of origin (mostly Spain, with a few items from Mexico and Cuba) however, no mention of the maker is made at all. This highlights the status of botijos as traditional items conforming to a shape and decoration established by custom with little original input expected from the individual maker. In spite of which there were quite a few examples that definitely owed as much to contemporary studio ceramic practice as they owed to tradition.

Botijos generally have a rounded shape, two spouts (a larger one to fill it and a smaller one to drink out of) and a handle. They used to be made of very porous clay so that they would cool the water by evaporation in a dry & hot climate. The more rounded the shape the more efficient its cooling capabilities (as this increases the ratio of surface to volume)

I had never heard of a botijo museum, even though botijos have an iconic character in Spanish culture. They are perceived as an example of the rural, the unspoilt, the naturally beautiful, the functional low tech solution to a hot dry climate, and most of all they are perceived as “ours”. Should you be inclined to google the word “Botijo” you will find a wealth of sites ranging from the scientific through the artistic to the near pornographic. This last category surprised me, but considering that it has a rounded shape, 2 spouts and a handle, perhaps it is not so surprising. As my (now retired) teacher, John Chipperfield, once said: “you can have a lot of fun with spouts and handles”, so perhaps you may be able to excuse the hot blooded for making certain connexions. The more scientific sites give formulae to calculate the rate of cooling of the water in a botijo. I have decided against quoting any of these here because they looked rather complicated to me but they all try to quantify the rate of cooling in relationship to the temperature and humidity in the atmosphere and the shape and volume of the botijo. It appears that each gram of water consumes 600 calories when it evaporates, which makes it perfectly possible to cool 2 to 3 litres of water from 30 0C to 10 0C given the right conditions, very ecologically sound!


Examples of "botijos" from the Botijo Museum in the province of Leon, Spain. They are all labelled with the place of origen but not with the name of the maker, highligting the traditional character of this kind of vessel.

Ejemplares de botijos del museo del Botijo en la provincia de Leon. Todos llevan anotado el lugar de procedencia pero no el autor, debido sin duda al caracter tradicional de este tipo de obra.

www.muselius.com/spain/leon/museo-del-botijo

http://www.ramonsa.net/botijos/album/

See below my own designs of porcelain "botijos" decorated with oxides.

Muestras de botijos de porcelana con oxidos colorantes creados por mi.

Botijos in the sky. Botijos volando