An Altar of Sorts - Blown and Casted Glass and Found Objects

Growing up during social and political unrest in Venezuela, and my resulting migration journey, has shaped my artistic and professional practice. My work seeks to reconcile the longing to connect with my home and the need to root myself in new surroundings. Glass is my primary medium, but I have also been developing the expression of this connection through ephemeral site interventions, performance art and my practice as an architect. I create glass artifacts that embody the relationship between place, identity and home. Using found objects from my surroundings as tools, I shape glass into forms that evoque home, such as religious artifacts. The same found objects, combined with the glass pieces, are arranged into altars that serve as portals home While the found objects physically inform the glass pieces, when arranging them in context, the glass, in turn, activates the found objects. This way the installation create a conversation between nostalgia for home and my relation to my current environment.