Maribel Portela observes and reveres life. She recognizes humanity is a part of life, not the center of it. Concerned about the harm we are causing to the earth, Portela’s sculptures both in clay and paper, re-focus our attention to respect and love Nature, a nature not yet seen. She states, “My work maintains a close correspondence with nature, which I use as a formal and symbolic vehicle to evidence transformation processes through our interaction and interference with it. As a result of this bond, I see my sculpture as generating artificial organic entities.  The task of artists is to create other environments, other sensations and other worlds. Imagination is the vehicle for my creative processes that allows me to manipulate intrinsically generated information in order to create a representation.”

For Portela, clay is a material that is intrinsically linked to humans.  She notes, “All museums around the world show the close relationship we have had with [clay], using it in our daily lives and with this material the creation myths were represented and continue to be represented. The Gods in Mesoamerica, for the most part, are formed in clay.”

One of her works , the Spiral is an installation project bult of 1,500 pieces of clay. Portela placed every piece on a spiral made of sand and viewers could take a piece for free. The first installation was in the Carrillo Gil Museum in Mexico City, and a similar installation with 800 pieces was placed in The George Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Canada. Portela purposed the installation as an offering to living beings.  As in Mexico there is a strong tradition of venerating the dead with offerings and altars, she decided that the Spiral would make an offering to those attending the exhibition.

http://www.maribelportela.com/index.php/obra/espiral#

Portela continues, “My spirit is very restless and that is why throughout my career I have worked and continue  to experiment with different materials such as stone, wood, bronze, among others. Each material for me speaks for itself and it is in this dialogue when I decide what project to do with what material. On the other hand, paper, like clay, is another of the materials that has accompanied us for a thousand years. It is just as fragile. What interests me a lot about this material is its impermanence, as life itself.”

*Photo on cover page: courtesy of Carlos Alarcon.

Contact Information for Maribel Portela:

www.maribelaportela.com