Gloria García Lorca, sculptor and niece of the poet Federico García Lorca, uses clay to shape poetry and explore the memory of physical forms. “I trace a link to life and existence because clay always has memory: if you take a lump, then shape it, then shape another, it tends to recover the original form. It’s as if it remembers. And conceptually I find that really interesting.”
Her work is based on the very essence of nature because of the material she uses, while her colours, in harmoniously repeated series, are poetry in themselves.
Her sculptural installations are made of clay, in other words, a simple material crafted by hand and shaped to embrace the four elements. It is the same earthly essence, perhaps, of which we are made. Poetry, the laws of physics, gravity and space are the ingredients in her compositions.
‘Wind Wall’
‘Wind Wall’ is a space inspired by the organic shapes of nature. It belongs to the Loewe Foundation and can be viewed at the firm’s flagship store in Calle Serrano, Madrid. With its zigzag pieces, ‘Wind Wall’ seems to capture the play of a passing breeze. You can almost hear a light wind as you observe the undulating clay of the wall. Green, ochre, soil, white, black…clay turns into movement. And tangible material becomes intangible. Matter, silica, iron oxide, quicklime… All become vessels for the air. The artist manages to create the sensation that, when you look at the piece, you feel the gentle caress of the breeze.
What is poetry? Poetry is you.
Poetic quality in a work of art is that which, when we read, observe or listen to a piece, speaks to us of the harmony present in nature.
The search for the poetic is what drives the artist in their quest to create something which doesn’t yet exist. Every artwork is born of an idea and of managing to express that idea beyond the limits of what we already know. Doing something new means breaking moulds, breaking through the confines of existing experience and finding a place to house the human soul.
Poetry is a metaphysical tool with which the artist can make the invisible visible and the tangible intangible. Or perhaps vice versa.
Photography: Oscar Rivilla
Translation: Rebekah Jane Rhodes
Music: Dr Symptosizer
Art direction: Oscar Rivilla&Carolina Verd
Hair&Makeup:
Naomi Gayoso for Guerlain
Fashion:
Main Picture: green jacket; striped shirt and skirt; black shoes by Loewe
Picture 2: flowery dress; green belt and shoes by Loewe
Picture 3: trench coat and shoes by Loewe
Carolina Verd 