Redface 3- She wishes she could escape from her reality as she looks outside her barred window. oil pastel. 2019
Title: My african queen (chalk pastel) to mezzo-rilievo in Das. 2020
Katia Cavazzini
(b. 1995) is a Zambian-Italian artist. Through mediums such as sculpture, painting and installation Cavazzini’s work unveils the varied experiences of bodies. In many of the works the female body is explored through materiality and an an almost surrealist expression of harsh realities.
“Over the years the sea salt settles and crystallises. The African woman's head (a sculptural self-portrait) covered largely by a shapeless material that tries to evoke the structure of sea salt. The latter, in its crystalline form, tends to preserve and incorporate everything with which it comes into contact. The face on which it rests and the memory of a past attributable to the slavery of western settlers and their immense barbarism and direct exploitation on indigenous peoples : - Like an archaeological find placed on the seabed, the work aims to crystallize and bring to light that story that collective memory cannot forget”
Ceramic Sculpture, 2020
Through scupture Cavazzini impactfully evokes a strong sense of the complexity of both physical and emotional experiences of the female body. In her use of materials like ceramics and gesso the artist presents a sculptural representation of a somatic archive of pain.
The artists’ sculptural use of a material like Gesso as the final presented piece speaks to the nature of the female form constantly being at the hands of the sculptor; of society.
It’s her daily reminder. She was walking back home till she was attacked and raped. Each day she looks in the mirror and is reminded of her tragedy. -
Gesso is traditionally a mix of an animal glue binder (usually rabbit-skin glue), chalk, and white pigment used by sculptors to prepare the shape of a final sculpture (fused bronze) or directly as a material for sculpting.
A selection of mixed media painting and drawings
