Carla Cascales' Sculptures Made From Reclaimed Materials

Semicircular. Handmade geometric marble and wood sculpture. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Skin. Circular marble repaired with a golden kintsugi technique, and concrete base. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Skin.

Coffee. Marble and wood sculpture inspired by the shape of coffee beans. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Rohe. Geometric sculpture made from mixing reclaimed wood and triangular green marble. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Moon. Circular granite structure, geometrically painted in a cream colour, representing a phase of the moon. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Triangular. Handmade geometric marble and wood sculpture. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Cobalt. Handmade geometric marble and oak timber sculpture. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Carla Cascales with her sculptures.

The gorgeous, Spanish artist, Carla Cascales‘ sculptures are not rooted as you might expect in her home country but rather in one a world away – Japan. Wabi-sabi is the Japanese aesthetic of imperfection, it is the nature of transience and impermanence. There are no symmetrical shapes and nothing is perfectly executed. Cascales’ work is the same. Broken pieces of marble, items that could have been thrown away are lovingly embraced in her myriad of artworks.

But it’s not just that element of Japanese culture that Cascales embraces. Kintsukuroi or the ‘golden repair’ are very much at the heart of her work. Essentially kintsukuroi repairs cracks in pottery and heals the broken vessels with a golden filler of sorts. Rather than hiding the damage, it highlights it. This golden vein, running through the broken pottery expresses the damage as an element of beauty, something to be treasured rather than ashamed of. Cascales’ work, a version of this, with her red veined pieces are equally as stunning as their ancient gold counterparts. Her work, broken and reconstructed as it is, has a level of perfection unseen in most perfect works.

Broken. Broken Heart. Iced Mountains. Marble sculptures made using a japanese technique, kintsukoroi, which reconstructs objects showing the cracks. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Cube. Handmade geometric marble and steel sculpture. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Life Circle. A sculpture that metaphorically represents life as a cycle, separating the life of a person in 4 stages of 20 years each, represented by different transparencies. The blocks are losing transparency as they move back the years, to finally become part of the marble once again. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Recover. These sculptures are a metaphor for how a difficult life experiences can make us stronger. Marble sculptures made using a japanese technique, kintsukoroi, which reconstructs objects showing the cracks. From the series Étimo, made of discarded and salvaged materials.

Literary project, tribute to Ana Maria Matute and his book ‘Los niños tontos’, consisting of 21 short stories written by CarlosJNavarro and visually interpreted by seven illustrators. For her illustrations, Carla Cascales used acrylics on a marble collage; acrylics on linen; and airbrush on wood.

Incomplete Perception. Mirror sculpture on timber, 50x70cm. The piece explores reality as a set of interpretations – we perceive only a part of what we see, always conditioned by a collage of personality, experiences, feelings, relationships and knowledge. Two people can look at the same piece, but can they see the same thing?