The idea of "Dinner Table" was born after extensive research on the reflective qualities of thermal emergency blankets and their role as ambiguous iconography associated with both tragedy and salvation. They are a common element in our contemporary visual culture and very often a precarious shelter for the marginalized body.

Working with porcelain was a great challenge from the very beginning. It's a material that dictates its own time with a sense of arrogance and has a memory of its own. Its molecules can remember if they were compressed, bent in the wrong direction, if there was too much moisture, or if it dried out too abruptly. Porcelain is both fragile and resilient, much like a body navigating spaces of care and violence.

For this installation, more than 15 objects were crafted from porcelain glazed with platinum and white clay. The chosen materials subvert the original power structure and subject all the elements to the same nonfunctional fragility. Within the space of this dinner table, all elements exist together, equally vulnerable to violence and negligence.

Photos by Bolivar Alencastro. Special thanks to artist Julia Amaral.