Seeing the spectrum of human emotions as fragile is a concept as old as time. The way emotions break and mold itself to our environment is the subject of a lot of art. What Ciane Xavier does with Breaking to Mend, however, is to capture these emotions in porcelain, literalizing the conceptual framework interplaying with the work.
The Galerie Stephanie exhibit uses the delicate nature of porcelain to run the gamut of human emotions that we experience. The plates in these exhibits depict different situations and states of emotions, and it gives us a general idea of the breadth of feelings that humanity deals with in a lifetime.
“In its fragility, this delicate material is strengthened by stories that are glazed by the human emotions and the relationships that bind one to another,” the exhibit write-up said. “This exhibition is an invitation to engage in the metaphorical mending of ‘moments we cherish and the moments we fear.’”
Xavier, a self-taught artist and sculptor who grew up in South Brazil, works as a pop surrealist in a variety of mediums. For her, the medium informs the truth of the experience, and she allows her ideas to bend to what the material she works with requires.
In Breaking to Mend, she works with porcelain plates and sculptures, depicting a slew of emotions with the medium. At the center of the exhibit are two porcelain structures of people with large feet—one person is doing a defensive stance as they stare at the other person, holding a heart while seemingly offering it to the first person.
Surrounding the ground of the sculptures are broken plates, showcasing the turmoil of the relationship at the center. Some of the plates contain sad, reluctant faces, adding even more emotionality to the shattering. Others are empty, just collateral damage in whatever argument is being depicted at the moment.
“The interplay of both whole and broken porcelains symbolize the various stages of vulnerabilities that each relationship narrates-either still seeing the whole in its brokenness, or too shattered that it identifies as a new entity,” the exhibit write-up said.
The walls around them contain different paintings done in a variety of plate sizes—some utilizing the typical rounded plates, while others are more jagged at the edges. The artist glazed her artworks directly into the plate, showing the seeming inevitability of these emotions being felt.
Ciane Xavier shows a diverse set of situations there: there are lovers talking to each other, people dissociating while listening to music, and multiple people seemingly screaming into nothingness. Many even place the people in more fantastical situations, making references to pop culture touchstones like Alice in Wonderland.
Breaking to Mend shows that the fragility of our relationships aren’t dependent on their explosiveness. Ciane Xavier characterizes the brittleness of our stability, and how who we are can be changed by the situations we find ourselves in.
The complexity of these depictions—fantastical and ordinary at the same time—provides that even the small emotions that we experience can upend the frail balance that we bring upon ourselves.
Photos by Elle Yap.
Related reading: ‘Sandata’: Archie Geotina Probes at the Fragility of Power
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