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Description
The Clay Studio’s Jennifer Zwilling joins artist Kukuli Velarde to discuss the works of the exhibition Free, Total, Faithful, and Fruitful. The exhibition brings together works from various series over the course of Velarde’s career to celebrate the dynamics and fluidity of identity, womanhood, ritual, history, and adoration. The exhibition’s title references the components of “perfect” marital love, according to teachings of the Catholic Church. Velarde reinterprets these concepts to convey an expansive and inclusive connotation of perfect love.
In her practice, Kukuli Velarde blends indigenous Peruvian culture, philosophy, and religion with European Catholic iconography to confront enduring cultural legacies of colonization. Drawing from visual languages of both indigenous and colonial cultures, the resulting imagery synthesizes and reclaims complexities of mestizo identities. By incorporating portraiture and self-portraiture, Velarde contemplates and reflects on the personal consequences of such histories and how multiple identities and realities can live on, together, in one person. Through her work, Velarde investigates an evolving sense of female identity, while simultaneously exploring the artist’s role as witness, critic, and agent of change.
Publication Date
4-4-2024
Keywords
Kukuli Velarde, Berman Art Museum, exhibitions, Catholicism, female identity, indigenous peoples
Disciplines
Art Practice | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Indigenous Studies | Women's Studies
Recommended Citation
Velarde, Kukuli and Zwilling, Jennifer, "Artist Kukuli Velarde in Conversation with Jennifer Zwilling, Curator and Director of Artistic Programs, The Clay Studio" (2024). Berman Conversation Series. 12.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/berman_conversations/12
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Rights Statement
Please contact the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College for permissions which fall outside of educational use.
Comments
The M4V video file has a run time of 1:04:40.
Peruvian-born, Philadelphia-based artist Kukuli Velarde draws deeply on her cultural heritage in a practice that spans ceramic sculpture and painting. She blends indigenous Peruvian culture, philosophy, and belief systems with European Catholic iconography to confront the enduring cultural legacies of colonization.
Jennifer Zwilling is the Curator and Director of Artistic Programs at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia where she manages the collection, exhibitions, and residency programs. Zwilling is also an Ursinus alum with a strong interest in social and political activism in ceramic art and craft.