The Chilean artist and goldsmith will present seven sculptures from January 14th at Montecarmelo, combining three crafts: ceramics, iron and an innovative organic textile made from two thousand fruit peels.

It's a hot summer in Santiago, and in the privacy of her workshop located in &Ntilde;u&ntilde;oa, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/liliana.ojeda.art/">Liliana Ojeda</a> is putting the finishing touches on the pieces that will be part of her next collection. A solo exhibition that fully embraces the language of sculpture. A work created literally with stitches: using thread and needle, she sews together fragments of collected and treated fruit peels, giving life to a veritable organic membrane and textile. This same material will later cover seven large-format sculptures made of iron and ceramic that comprise &ldquo;Grabitar,&rdquo; the exhibition on view from January 14 to February 28 at the Montecarmelo Cultural Center in Providencia.
An artist and goldsmith trained at the Catholic University of Chile and with a Master's degree in Jewelry from England, Liliana Ojeda had been seeking for years to move away from traditional techniques and develop her own artistic language through the reuse of organic materials. This path led her to develop the Biomater project with Clarisa Menteguiaga, whose works made from organic waste materials were exhibited at the Centro Cultural La Moneda, Ch.ACO (2023). Outside of Chile, Biomater led them to work for the <a href="https://www.galeriegosserez.com/categories/objets--sculptures.html">Gosserez Gallery.</a> who exhibited the duo's work in exhibitions in London and Paris (2022-2024).

Now working independently, and with the support of a National Creation Fund grant, she is preparing &ldquo;Grabitar,&rdquo; a term coined by the artist that synthesises the force of attraction (to gravitate) and presence in space (to inhabit). A sensory journey composed of seven large-format sculptures that fuse three crafts: ceramics, iron, and an innovative textile created from the collection of more than 2,000 peels of mandarins, oranges, grapefruits and Calama melons for domestic and gastronomic use.
Ojeda addresses here the materiality, the rigour of the process and the transition from waste to sculptural form.

<h4 style="text-align: justify;">L&#39;OFFICIEL: Your new work moves away from jewelry to explore large-format sculpture. How did this transition come about, and why did organic waste become your central material?</h4> LILIANA OJEDA: It all started with the need to work with something that resembled skin as closely as possible. During the pandemic, since I was spending more time at home, I began to reconsider the organic material that was going to waste and that need to question its permanence. I started experimenting with orange peel waste, reflecting on this material not only as low-cost but also as a catalyst for questioning the consumption cycle. And that&#39;s how I discovered the potential in this membrane: it&#39;s malleable, it dehydrates, and it can be sewn. I really like that these fruit peels change over the years, like human skin, so this delicate raw material functions as a metaphor for change.<h4 style="text-align: justify;"> L&#39;O: The core of &quot;GRABITAR&quot; is this delicate &quot;organic textile&quot; made from fruit peels. What is the self-taught technical process you developed to transform this material?</h4> LOJ: The process is very meticulous and takes time. First, I collected about two thousand fruit peels (and drank a lot of orange juice!), scraping them by hand to clean and thin them. Then came the controlled dehydration, which turns them into a membrane with a certain hardness, yet flexible. Finally, the sewing, because everything was sewn by hand to join the fragments. It&#39;s a technique that merges the textile with the organic and the artisanal. My intention is for the raw material, which is fragile and transient, to acquire a sculptural permanence.

<h4 style="text-align: left;">L'O: The exhibition functions as a dialogue between crafts: the membrane or organic textile, ceramics, and iron. What was the challenge of integrating these very different techniques into a single piece?</h4>
LOJ: The project collaborators, ceramist Pablo D&iacute;az and sculptor Mauricio Carrasco, received instructions and drawings to create the volumes in their respective materials, translating the ideas from two-dimensional drawings and models into three-dimensional forms. The challenge was to force such contrasting materials to coexist. Iron is strong, industrial, and permanent; ceramics are flammable. The high temperatures and the organic, sensitive shells make the series a meeting point where each material relinquishes some of its prominence to allow the work to function. Iron provides support and structure, ceramics provide a base of gravity, and the fruit textile provides tension and transparency.
<h4 style="text-align: left;">L'O: In your work, there is a strong sensory component, both visual and olfactory. What does this comprehensive stimulation aim to provoke in the viewer?</h4>
LOJ: I want the sculpture to be not just something to look at, but something to be experienced. The visual component is provided by the circular geometry of the works and how the light filters through the shells, projecting warm shadows. The olfactory factor is residual. Although the shells are treated, they retain a subtle citrus aroma, which is activated as you move through them. It's an invitation to memory, to a connection with something organic and domestic, which contrasts sharply with the sculptural form.
<h4 style="text-align: left;">L'O: After four years of research with this material, how do you envision the future of your sculptural language? Will you continue along this line of work with biomaterials and waste?</h4>
LOJ: This line of work definitely marks the beginning of my sculptural language. The research doesn't stop with orange peels. The future lies in continuing to explore organic waste as a raw material for sculpture. I'm interested in scale and installation, how these organic forms integrate into the urban or architectural landscape. The challenge is to broaden the range of plant materials that can be transformed, while maintaining formal rigor and the ethics of repurposing.

Artist Liliana Ojeda Transforms Waste into Sculptural Beauty

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