Joana Vasconcelos Exhibition

Currently at the Yorkshire sculpture park is an exhibition by Joana Vasconcelos. Joana Vasconcelos is a Portuguese artist, who famously was the first women and youngest artist to present a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. Joana’s work is playful and imaginative but has great and meaningful messages too.

Joana likes to create her work using fabric, material and crochet alongside everyday objects. She frequently uses items associated with domestic work and craft to comment from a feminist perspective on national and collective identity, cultural tradition and women’s roles in society.

In the first gallery there is a huge gun shaped sculpture made from old fashioned, rotary telephones. The artwork is audible too with the sound of the phones ringing. This piece was called Call Centre and it was about bringing ‘stereotypical masculinity to the fore and takes the form of an enlarged Beretta pistol comprised of 168 rotary-dial telephones. Embodying ideas of strength, power and dominance’

Continuing on into the next space the first thing that met you where these beautiful giant silhouette shoes. It’s not until you get a closer look you realise it’s made from pans and pan lids. They looked so elegant and were so beautifully put together. The piece was called Marilyn, a reference to Marilyn Monroe. The piece was a ‘comment on social conventions and highlight the division between women’s traditional domestic and contemporary public roles.’

The next piece in the Gallery blew me away. It has vibrant colours, shapes, textures and imagination to create something as wonderful as this. It is called the Valkyrie Marina Rinaldi. It is suspended from the ceiling and is 12 metres long. It represents the ‘‘valkyries’. ‘Female figures from Norse mythology who selected warriors on the battlefield worthy of a place in Valhalla.’ It is a mix of fabric, beads, embellishments and crochet. This is a huge piece of artwork and as you walk around it, your eyes didn’t know where to look next.

The next piece which I really loved is named Red Independent Heart, it is shaped like the Heart of Viana, which is a well-known Portuguese emblem. Looking from a far it looks like a beautiful put together plastic sculpture but it isn’t until you get closer that you see its made from red plastic cutlery. It’s so well put together you just can’t believe something so beautiful and luxury looking could be made from such a simple and boring item. The heart ‘symbolises honesty and generosity’ The piece stands over 3 metres tall and rotated in a black room to really make the red come to life.

I love Joana’s use of crochet, there was quite a few things using different types of crochet and patterns. I can make simple things using crochet so seeing such large scale pieces I can really appreciate the hours these things take to create.

I loved this one it’s approximately 3.5 metres high and 5.5 metres across. This one is called Finisterra. This is just one of many of her crochet paintings, there’s so many on her website and they are so amazing! Please go check them out on her website. I love how this looks so organic and how it’s growing out of this really traditional art frame.

Outside of the main gallery was a number of her works aswell. My favourite being this ice-cream which is called Tutti Frutti. When I first saw it I thought that is really cool. From between the trees a colourful ice cream pops up. Then as you get closer you realise it was actually made from plastic sand moulds, it brings such a joyful and playful element to the piece.

I am so glad I got this wonderful opportunity to see some of Joana’s work. I have seen her work in books but seeing it in real life is 1000 times better. This exhibition is on until January 2022 so definitely try and visit to see it for yourself.