CASA TLACUACHE
bringing our land to life,
and life to our land through
art, ecology & leyendas
un proyecto de
Ricardo Alberto Ramirez Garcia-Rojas y
Marcelo Alejandro Ramirez Garcia-Rojas
isolating native clay for pottery and construction
*Advised by Raheleh Filsoofi, UTGRV School of Fine Arts
Clay is a wonderfully abundant naturally resource that can be widely applied in ecological earthwork construction. Soil is comprised of three main components -- sand, silt, and clay. Clay is the most weathered form of earth rocks. Particles that are between 0.06 mm and 2 mm in diameter are classified as sand, as silt if it is between 0.002 mm and 0.06 mm, and as clay if the particle diameter is <0.002 mm.
For Construction
(quicker process, but with more sand included in mix)
For Pottery
(slower process, but less sand for increased plasticity)
PARTICIPATING ARTISITS:
Selina Gamez
Marcelo Ramirez Garcia-Rojas
Ricardo Ramirez Garcia-Rojas
UTRGV School of Fine Arts, Project Faculty Advisor: Raheleh Filsoofi
Pottery for Activism
(Fighting the Border Wall at our National Butterfly Center)
Construction on Trump's Border Wall is scheduled to begin in February through our National Butterfly Center, Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, our historic La Lomita Chapel, and Bentsen State Park. In a community that is starved for recreational activities, the government has waived over 30 environmental laws to push forward its racist policies and destroy the last 4% of untouched wildscape that we have in the Rio Grande Valley.
WE HERE IN THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY OF TEXAS DO NOT WANT A BORDER WALL. WE WILL NOT INHERIT A MONUMENT OF FEAR TO OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS, WE WILL LEAVE THEM A LESSON IN FIGHTING FOR OUR LAND. YOUR WALL IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS ILLEGAL IN THIS COMMUNITY. WE WILL FIGHT WITH EVERYTHING WE HAVE.
In this particular battle, we took to the Rio Grande River before it is walled off at the National Butterfly Center, we dug for clay, we processed it in the UTRGV Ceramics Studio, and we created pieces which we donated to the National Butterfly Center to auction off to raise funds to fight this development onsite.
