In the latest of our Designer Q&A series, Effect speaks to Attua Aparicio, a London-based Spanish multidisciplinary artist and the 2024 recipient of the Design Museum’s prestigious Ralph Saltzman Prize
To visit Attua Aparicio’s exhibition at the Design Museum in London is to experience a collection of ceramics that appear to glisten with life. Digit Texture Vases – bearing the marks of thousands of individual thumbprints – seem to twist and sway, lights shimmering off each tiny concave. Solaris De Esgueva, created with her sister, Saelia Aparicio, is a functioning shelving unit, but it’s also a startling piece of sculpture – and it’s no surprise to hear it’s been snapped up by Gallery FUMI, whose booth was the standout at Design Miami in December.
Then there is A♡J – an organic ceramic anemone in gleaming ceramics and glass – a collaboration with Attua’s partner, glassmaker Jochen Holz, whose neon borosilicate lighting tubes are the perfect foil for Attua’s sculptural viscosity. It’s unforgettable.
Aparicio’s exhibition at the Design Museum is the result of her winning this year’s Ralph Saltzman Prize – an event which has rapidly become one of the highlights of the Design Museum’s calendar. Now in its third year, the award celebrates emerging designers (those who have set up their own practices in the past five years); and Aparicio follows Mac Collins – the first recipient and one of the judges on this year’s jury, and last year’s winner, Marco Campardo.
At the preview, the head of the award’s jury – and Chief Curator at the Design Museum – Johanna Agerman Ross described Aparicio’s work as “challenging perception of form and function.” Here’s what the exciting young designer – who already has the likes of Kelly Wearstler among her followers – had to say to us:
How would you describe your design philosophy?
My practice is driven by hands-on research and curiosity. I like to combine materials and techniques that don’t normally go together. And I like to look at materials for what they are, looking beyond the labels that they are given – such as ‘waste’
What are you working on right now?
I am starting to work with an upholsterer to combine ceramics with textiles –which are a material I’ve been wanting to work with for a while now. They will eventually become stools: the bottom part will be ceramics and the top textiles. A recent trip to Mexico has opened my understanding of what’s possible with hand-made textiles.
I like to look at materials for what they are, looking beyond the labels that they are given – such as ‘waste’
Attua Aparicio
Where do you take your initial inspiration for a piece?
It depends on each piece and it almost always is a combination of things. Very often, inspiration comes from the making process itself. I ask myself: can I make this? Also, I draw inspiration from domestic spaces – I try to make pieces that make them more interesting, stimulating and beautiful.
What’s your go-to material and why?
For the last five years, I’ve been exploring the combination of discarded borosilicate glass with ceramics. I started because borosilicate does not get recycled and I had access to it through my partner, glass artist Jochen Holz.
Collaborations are a feature of your career so far. What are the benefits of collaborating with other artists?
I love being with people. Thinking and sharing ideas with a common goal feels like being a family. I benefit from giving up control and I welcome and cherish someone else’s point of view as it generates new ideas that none of the individuals might have come up with on their own. 1+1<3
Do you remember the first thing you made?
I made a tiny bottomless cylinder with a few tiny bits of black and white glass. I still have it. The first thing I remember making was a bread figurine during a summer camp when I was six.
What does winning the Ralph Saltzman Prize mean to you?
It’s amazing to be awarded and to be given the opportunity to exhibit in the Design Museum. I feel respected in the design world and excited to see what opportunities will come from this.
The Ralph Saltzman Prize: Attua Aparicio can be seen at the Design Museum in London until 15 April 2024
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