Seeds | Cristina I. Abbate

Seeds Series

Seeds explores interiority as origin and draws inspiration from the organic and vital forms found in nature. Each piece emerges from a slow, attentive gesture in which the clay expands from the inside out, as if something were searching for its own form. In shaping these works, I create harmonious, balanced spaces: smooth or textured surfaces that undulate, with edges but no sharp points, inviting curiosity while simultaneously suggesting and containing.

The series reflects on what germinates in silence—impulses, desires, memories—that becomes visible only when it finds room to grow. These pieces do not represent seeds literally, but the experience of being inhabited by something that has not yet found its name.

In Seeds, the material retains the trace of the process: pinching marks, irregularities, textures that reveal the time of making. Each work is a small organism breathing from within, a form carving its way between fragility and strength.

Seed 1

2024

Earthenware, patina, acrylic, wax

H 10 x W 16 x D 10 cm.

The work engages with the idea of the feminine as a generative force—not as a fixed interior or symbolic form, but as a material condition. The earthy, brown-toned area suggests a dense and latent space, holding the potential for transformation shaped through heat and time, without needing to be fully revealed. In contrast, the outer surface—marked by irregular cavities in blue and gold tones—acts as a porous membrane or protective layer. With marine-like resonances, this surface operates as an interface: it both conceals and reveals, allowing glimpses of what it holds.

The cavities do not follow a regular pattern, but instead emerge through an organic logic akin to processes of growth, accumulation, or erosion.

Its small scale invites close, intimate viewing. The piece resists immediate legibility, unfolding gradually through proximity and attention. Rather than offering a fixed interpretation, Seed 1 remains in a state of becoming—an unstable balance between protection and exposure, interiority and surface, suggesting an active, generative presence embedded in the material itself.