Paula is a Brisbane-based ceramicist and sculptor passionate about nature and plants, working with porcelain and wood to create large and intricate botanical scale sculptures and art installations. Paula is originally from Argentina and grew up in Barcelona, Spain as a political refugee and has an ingrained sense of identity related to the political landscape. She is also a PhD candidate and her research focusses on the subjugation of nature through the reconfiguration of flora, the process of decolonisation, and investigates the politicising of plants through the material thinking and handling of clay and collage.
Her project seeks to expose the roots affecting our current climate and environmental crisis employing design, visual arts and education to mitigate the daily struggles of our existence. She argues that focusing on connections to place and social justice with the positive and dynamic aspects of human empathy will drive the urgent response to the climate emergency, resulting in more resilient and transdisciplinary methods to global problems. Paula‘s artistic style of expression uses complex forms, bold ornamentation and the juxtaposition of contrasting elements often conveying a sense of drama, movement and tension. She attempts to redress the imbalance created by anthropocentrism and allow nature to be seen as a dynamic subject rather than a passive object in art.