Riesbri @riesbri

Precarious sediments of the unknown, 2023

Steel, wood and rubber,

Riesbri is a third-year sculpture student at Concordia University. Born in Paraguay and raised in Brazil, she now lives in Montreal. Her practice combines woodworking, casting, metalworking, ceramics, painting, and design to create unique dialogues between abstract and formal elements. While sculpture is her main interest, she is also a painter, strongly influenced by her sculpture. She has exhibited at the Quebec Museum of Masters and Artisans, Capital Culture House, Atelier Galerie 2112, and ADA X as part of the Art Matters festival.

For Riesbri, there is a special dynamic between humans and sculpture, where the object can be perceived as another body by the viewer, who can simultaneously interact with it and the space it occupies. A fundamental fascination with the human condition guides her practice, which

also involves themes surrounding technology, process, and experimentation. Riesbri thus seeks to play with notions of utility and futility to create transgressive objects. Events related to her personal life and mixed indigenous origins are freely incorporated into her work, giving Riesbri's works an autobiographical nature.

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By building two gigantic hairpins, I aim to radically alter the scale and materials associated with everyday objects, exploring the concept of utility and inutility. The hairpin, with its rich history dating back to ancient civilizations, holds a lot of cultural and symbolic meaning. Importantly, this object has been adopted in the LGBTQIA+ community where it is used as a symbol of self-expression and defiance of societal norms. This work is an exploration of queer phenomenology, a field that examines the ways in which our understanding of the world is shaped by our experiences and identities. By challenging our perceptions of what is considered art and what is not, I am inviting the viewer to consider the ways in which their own understanding of the world is shaped by societal norms and expectations. Referencing the Clothespin sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and the Kiss by Constantin Brancusi, my work is also a commentary on the relationship between everyday objects and fine art.