THE LACE MAKER

In the exhibition “Clay and Lace”, Caroline Harari brings art to the everyday, takes the everyday to art and makes us reflect on our popular culture.

Angélica Valente
In the simplicity of the raw materials that she uses, Caroline Harari creations cause emotion by speaking of our culture and our traditions. The exhibition “Clay and Lace”, held during the month of June at the Brazilian House Museum in São Paulo, brought together pieces in ceramics created by the artist, with patterns reproducing various types of Brazilian lace. The collection includes pitchers, troughs, gourd bottles, pans, urns and plates, traditional daily utensils, forgotten in time, but present in the country's collective imagery.
The pieces tell us the history of forms, of lace, of lace makers and of embroidery. Using a single firing in an electric oven and treated clay, Harari applies contemporary technology to making ceramics, baking at temperatures of up to 1300°C, to give strength and durability. “Today everything is discardable, and my concern is to create something which has come to stay, with which we can have contact for more time”, she explains.
The ceramic artist goes in search of rescuing the Brazilian repertoire of utensils, and to each rediscovered form she applies delicate hands, to arrive at the limits of thickness which the clay allows, in a “pinching” movement which is reminiscent of the indigenous way.
Pursuing the rescue idea, lace joins with clay spontaneously: “I picked up a lace cloth, pressed it into the clay and placed it in the oven. When the piece was removed, I saw that perfect dialog, full of meanings”.
Guided by the anthropologist Luciana Aguiar, Harari uses the Irish, the bobbin, the labyrinth, the “Boa-Noite”, the “redendê”, the renaissance and the filet, laces and embroideries from various origins, in the majority from Arab and European countries, to which are added Brazilian yarns and braids, and which still provide a source for sustaining the communities in which they are produced.
“The outstanding work which the lace makers do takes days to complete and then they are forced to sell it for 5 or 10 reais. There is no way it can survive. If this art is lost, we will lose a piece of ourselves. Many people are working to preserve this culture in one way or another, there are competent projects being developed throughout the country. My work is an indirect contribution also along these lines.”
By rediscovering the use of clay and of lace, using a new technology, Caroline Harari makes this popular culture contemporary.