In her search for an alliance with clay, Carla comes close to the knowledge of distant and different times and beings in her dealings with this element: from the termite house to the rammed earth, from planting corn to the bowl that goes on the table. In the paths found by the artist throughout her research, the earth is the foundation and carries the form of value in all of them. The value of the marimbondo nest, the value of the Paleolithic plaque, the value of the adobe that is pressed into brick and provides shelter for an entire quilombo. The artist’s autonomy over how to think about, manipulate and compose this material leads to unique textures and shapes, passing through the time it takes to stir, sip, mold, mix, paint, burn and compose.

Carla presents herself as a method by accepting that before any ready-made discourse, there is genuinely a desire to recognize oneself, to integrate oneself into things that are crossed and apprehended by the circularity of the experience that the land brings.

abode, nourishment and self-theory are the items presented in this exhibition that manage to tie together the visual production of an artist who, in elaborating a new meaning for herself, carefully and complexly organizes multiple stories around her. Carla Santana’s orientation with her works is straightforward: to shelter, to sustain, to be.