Gradient color vases.
Mixed clay.
Exhibit at SEESON, Saigon, 2023.
Landscape Gradients.
The ceramic collection explores the relationship between landscape shapes and gradients. The silhouettes of the vases were inspired by the phenomenon of the mirage. In the desert, with the heat emanating from the ground, human bodies often cast shadows that ripple and appear like water, distorting the figures, making the viewer wonder about its original shape.
Leandro seeks to portray these vases like figures and contours from far away, like people walking in the distance on a sunny day in the desert, like a blurry memory of a dream.
The vases are made from a gradient of stoneware and red clay from Southern Vietnam mixed with different oxides and clays.
At the age of 10, Leandro became in contact with clay with the ceramic artist Rufina Gonzalez on the Island of La Gomera (SP) where he used to spend the summers with his grandparents and cousins. Rufina Gonzalez is one of the two remaining women who still works with the traditional techniques of the "aborigines” of the Islands. This ancient technique is called “Alisado”, using one single stone to rub the surface of the vase in order to make it smooth. This results in a unique texture that resembles skin.
The vases showcase a dialogue on skin palettes evolving from one shade to another, raising the question of the “criollo” culture, the mixed ethnicities in different forms that were influenced by the Spanish colonies when they conquered the Canary Islands. Through this work, Leandro endeavors to understand the importance of what color gradient as it pertains to the skin means to society.