My Impossibility to Make a Pre-Columbian Figure and Show it as Art, 2019
“This sculpture is an artefact of ‘new agreement’. It has the power to overcome the contradictions represented by the telling title and the figure itself. It presents the unexpected, unknown result that derives from a clash between two seemingly opposed forces.
This is the place where I think ‘agreement’ can be found. ‘My impossibility to make a pre-Columbian figure and show it as art’ calls out our common tendency to perceive reality based on pre-conceived ideas, rather than on empiric experience. It is about making a distinction between the idea of something and the object/event itself.”
Su Melo (1976, CL) studied Graphic Design at the UNIACC in Santiago, and Fine Art and Ceramics at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. However, her artistic work long predates the start of her academic career, with her interest in working with clay as a continuous guide. Throughout the years, Su has learned and taught ancient techniques of working with clay from original cultures in South America, and has worked with nomadic communities in India. Su uses her material and practice not only as a medium, but also as an anthropological device that allows her to connect her artwork to metaphysics, people’s behaviours, cultures, and political issues.