Maria Ignacia Walker was trained as a jeweler and her interest for the human body is expressed through different artistic disciplines. She approaches art by working with metal, experimenting with material, using her artisanship to make jewelry, body pieces, objects and installations.
Artist Statement
Through wearable art, I have found a way of communicating, conveying, remembering and rethinking what we are and once were. My pieces are the fruit of an intimate exchange with my body, which involves exploring old memories, bodily losses and constant renewal. I feel deeply captivated by the body’s physical and psychological ability to store and abandon. What do we hold on to and what do we forget? In my work, I contemplate what the body preserves. Freezing the cycles of these processes to produce objects that honor the parts of us that have perished. Seeing what’s regenerated or cast aside instead. I create with skin, cells and hair, elements that are subject to day-to-day renewal and that are linked to our ethereal beings.
From Memory
The fragility of memories has been the subject of countless theoretical and scientific studies. Like stormy clouds limiting a comprehensive understanding
of phenomena, memories are intricate, mysterious and evoked differently every time. Each processed memory, becoming distorted or manipulated to fit what we interpret from the reality.
Collecting, cataloging, storing, retrieving and repeating life experiences are concepts that María Ignacia Walker links to memory. As a result of such reflections, she created “From Memory”, a series of figurative copper and silver pieces forged and reconstructed through an uncontrolled hight voltages electroforming process. Faces, the most memorable feature of a person, depicted through endless repetition until they are distorted, losing details, and gradually deteriorating their structure. In a pulsating and constant exploration, María Ignacia Walker explores and tries to relive her own memories through features that are increasingly blurry but become tangible in her quest to find different methods of capturing them.
Face by face, memory by memory, until they become murky masses. Although they still have some expressive features, they cancel each other out, whilst strengthening the confusing and complexity of the process.
100 RING PORTRAIT
Faces, the most memorable feature of a person, are depicted through endless repetition until they are distorted, losing details, and gradually deteriorating their structure. In a pulsating and constant exploration, María Ignacia Walker explores and tries to relive her own memories through features that are increasingly blurry but become tangible in her quest to find different methods of capturing them.