LISBON, Portugal (AP) — As a former nightclub bouncer and black belt karate instructor, Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos doesn’t shy away from the challenges posed by her latest extravagant creation.
The 51-year-old man, known for his large installations, is now creating a ceramic wedding cake 12 meters (40 feet) high and 15 meters (50 feet) wide for an exhibition in England. 🇧🇷
The “wedding cake” is mostly made from the famous Portuguese tiles called “azulejos”. Vasconcelos uses pale pinks, greens, blues and yellows in his most ambitious outdoor project yet.
She likes war. “Every day something happens, you know something new comes up and you have to solve problems,” he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It’s a very dynamic, living thing.”
His efforts to create a “wedding cake” had already taken five years due to the Covid-19 pandemic when he first mentioned it to British investment banker Jacob Rothschild. He preferred it over the gardens of Waddeston Manor, where he holds weddings in the southeast of England.
Rothschild, says Vasconcelos in his atelier in an old riverside boathouse in Lisbon, became “a partner on this crazy journey.”
Vasconcelos has built a reputation for himself over the past two decades. His brand image includes large and extravagant pieces that combine high and low brows, inspired by Portuguese craftsmanship, evocative of the feminine gaze and a hidden sense of humour.
He burst onto the international art scene at the 2005 Venice Biennale with “A Noiva” (“The Bride”), a five-metre-high chandelier made from 25,000 wrapped tampons.
Her 2009 “Marilyn” is a large pair of stilettos made from stainless steel pots and lids high above her head.
An intricate ceramic German Shepherd dog encased in an intricately elongated pole created by women in the Azores in the mid-Atlantic Ocean in Portugal.
In 2012, she became the first woman and the youngest artist to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles, attracting 1.6 million visitors. Four years ago, he became the first Portuguese to have a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
The “Wedding Cake” has three tiers with stairs to climb. There will be water and lighting in the forest park zone.
Once the various parts of the plant have arrived in the UK, the assembly process will begin. The launch is scheduled for the end of May.
Meanwhile, Vasconcelos is trying to get his 4th dan in karate, another test of his skills.
“If you’re not a fighter, you can’t do karate,” he says.
