Cajón del Maipo
“I think a lot about if we found each other or chose each other,” says Constanza Alamazán Carrasco, the ceramics artist based in Santiago, Chile. Carrasco began working with ceramics five years ago, crafting pieces in clay that continue in a long legacy of pre-Hispanic pottery cultures. She is a part of the Alma Colectivo de Diseño Libre, a Free Design Collective based in Santiago, and finds herself deeply enmeshed within the city’s creative centre. Read Costanza’s interview with Trobat and shop her exclusive collection of pieces on trobat.co below.
Ceramics. I think a lot about if we found each other or chose each other. It seems to me that this more conscious relationship between clay, my hands and my fantasies began five years ago.
When I finished my studies in architecture, it took clay and I four years to meet. I always liked to explore materials and it was with clay that my hands and my spirit felt most comfortable. At one point, when I understood that the craft required 100% of my time and dedication, I didn’t stop “making”, this was the only way I allowed myself (and still do) to explore the material through form, aesthetics, and function. I believe that through constant making I have been creating my own fantasy world where my hands and clay find a language.
I have a very bad memory for names, there are definitely artists who have influenced me, but I think that influences go further than specific people. I think my inspiration has a lot to do with a territorial, social and cultural context: with the questions that arise in everyday situations, in a conversation about “trying to change the world” with a colleague or friend, with the observations of my surroundings, the city, the mountains, the valley, the sea, the forest and the desert. With a scientific reference on my father’s side and an interest in botany on my mother’s side, with the legacy of pre-Hispanic pottery cultures and the understanding of the pottery practices of peoples who today are in resistance. All these constant references or inspirations form a kind of collage that is constantly mutating in me and translating into my practice.
It is in Santiago, Chile. It is a very beautiful house that used to be a small school, where various artists rented what used to be the classrooms. I arrived at the house four months ago. I share the workshop with a great colleague and friend Magdalena Solar. The space enriches me daily with the rich and interesting relationships and connections that arise between those of us who rent it, each one with their own stories, presences and fantasies, which makes it perfect.
I would love to have my grandmothers and Grandpa Pepe (may they rest in peace), my workshop housemates, my close family reviving the dead, my best friends and as star guests Juan Gabriel, Donna Haraway, Gladys Marin and Whitney Houston. I would let each guest bring a surprise dish to set on a large candelabra-laden table.
I am now reading “Después de vivir un siglo: A biography of Violeta Parra” by Víctor Herrero and I loved the documentary Donna Haraway: Tales for Earthly Survival.
I think I would be a microbiologist.
Scorpio, I think that in certain aspects I do, especially in the intensity with which I get involved in what I do.
