On the night of February 10, Chardón’s vast lobby was brimming with enthusiastic students, professors, and onlooking visitors waiting to enter the building’s newly remodeled gallery. The real event, though, came in the form of the gallery’s headlining exhibit- Permutación: Cambio del orden de un número de cosas sin que altere su naturaleza, a ceramics spectacle by Colegio’s own artist and professor Claudia Torres-Guillemard.
After a few minutes of eager anticipation, Torres-Guillemard, with her newborn baby in arms, appeared before the crowds and looked on in speechless and humbling awe at the great mess of people staring back at her. After a few brief words, the doors finally opened, and the crowd gushed in.
(Photo Credit: Taharis Irizarry)
Permutación, described as a homage to the artist’s deep connection with Mother Earth, displays an ample variety of small to medium, vibrantly colored ceramic artifacts representing, in one way or another, the different aspects that characterize Torres’ life: that of a mother, educator, and artist. Through a collection of oddly yet beautifully shaped ceramic items, Torres tells a story that encompasses the deeper meaning and importance of motherhood, as well as the raw and organic connection we all have with Earth. From colorful drinking mugs, to earthly toned sinewy vases, to the curious display of brilliant colored “trompos,” Torres’ exhibit captures the playfulness and heart of the human experience flawlessly. The cleverly named Avoirdupois, which signifies “weight, heaviness, especially of a person,” is a ceramic print of the artist’s pregnant belly that was particularly representative of the maternal theme.
(Photo Credit: Julianna Canabal)
A curious element she added to most displays was a noun or a phrase with its corresponding definition, which served complementary to the piece, and graced each artifact with relevance and narrative. The words’ languages varied, she used words from the English language, as well as French and Spanish; and energized her pieces with vibrant words like “sonder” and “maudlin.” Torres mentioned the feeling of fascination that comes from observing her two-year-old son grasping and toying with words and language, and how as an educator she seeks for her students to take culture and language with them. In her words, “art came first, then the word.”
(Photo Credit: Julianna Canabal)
“I like how you can tell that every piece has a story behind it from the word and the definition underneath it. My favorite work was the baby bottle nipples because the definition has to do with suffering and it’s really entertaining [and amusing] to me that they’ve been suffering with their babies,” affirmed Tatiana Fernández, a third year Geology and Biology student attending the opening.
UPRM student interacting with the art (Photo credit: Julianna Canabal)
In comparison, Juan Cabrera, a Computer Engineering student currently pursuing an art minor, expressed that his favorite piece was that of the oriental style cups placed at the starting point of the exposition- inefable “mainly because of their color patterns and the quick strokes that really make it [the piece] pop.” He continued to add commentary on the particular style surrounding the collection, noting the clear deviations from her usual approach: “she usually makes very perfect figures with quick and easy movements that make every single piece excellent, but here she purposely made irregularities in every piece. Regardless of these, she made them work in such a way that every piece has the same weight and thickness, and that’s actually very impressive.”
(Photo credit: Taharis Irizarry)
Claudia Torres-Guillemard recalls that “as a former UPRM alumnus, I experimented with many mediums.” When asked about why she chose ceramic as her medium of choice, she marveled enthusiastically that “the moment I touched the clay, I fell in love with it. Ceramic is just dirt, you can pick it up from the ground and create absolutely anything with it. You can paint with it, make it look like metal, whatever you need it to be. It is a medium that has no restrictions except the artist themselves. It challenges you every time.” Torres-Guillemard was, unlike many of her art pieces, at a loss for words about how she felt as she glimpsed at people admiring and surveying the gallery that contained the fruits of her labor. She says that “she had so many words next to her pieces yet none she could possibly say at the moment”, but her face beamed, and she looked satisfied at the end result.
(Photo Credit: Julianna Canabal)
As waves of people walked and perused the ends of Chardón’s quaint and lovely Art Gallery, one could not help but notice the conversations the art provoked among the students, colleagues, and visitors. Its goal is simple and far-reaching: to challenge a person’s perspective, or simply grant them a glimpse into the artist’s connection to Earth. With an exhibit whose name translates to Permutation: Change of the order of things without altering its nature, one can see how her art aspires to show people how a medium like clay can be molded in a myriad of ways without fundamentally altering that which it is made of. And in a way, the way she thinks about art reflects the truth about the human experience. Humans are molded and characterized by their capacity for growth; they endure changes beyond the scope of the imaginable yet are silently, and beautifully, bound to their nature.
(Photo Credit: Julianna Canabal)
Chardon’s Art Gallery’s doors will be open to visitors daily from 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM. Be sure to drop by and check out the wonderful art it has to offer!