For Remy-Katherine Ciuba, art is often a kind of therapy for personal events in her life.
For Remy-Katherine Ciuba, art is often a kind of therapy for personal events in her life.
In response to her coming final exams, for example, the VCU rising senior created a piece of performance art (top image) that she described as “trying to take of yourself, but being inefficient at it.” After a bad breakup, Ciuba turned to making dorodango, a Japanese art form that involves polishing spheres of mud until they become glassy-looking like billiard balls, as a “repetitive, mindless” task she could work on while hanging with friends, as well as seeing a beautiful end-result come out of “something kind of shitty.”
Ciuba came to VCU from Belfast, Ireland, where she grew up originally thinking she’d go into fashion. Eventually she became interested in video and performance art as well, Ciuba said, and though she’s officially a sculpture major at VCU, she loves the freedom the school gives her in her studies. “I don’t have to fall into any categories,” Ciuba said, “There’s a lot more than sculpture that I do.”
FIG.B; Cross-section of “The Great Pink Cave”
Some of Ciuba’s other projects have included using computer programming to design objects to be 3D printed, laminated wood-bending (“the cheating way”), foam sculpting and chicken wire sculptures.
The Pitts
Ciuba was awarded a fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in February based the variety of her work. “There are some materials that I would like to try that I haven’t been able to afford,” Cibua said of what she plans to do with the award, as well as possibly pursuing an artist residency in Japan. “They have a sensibility that’s just very alluring to me,” she said.
After graduating, Ciuba is planning to return to Belfast to work on Japanese ceramics with her mother, who was just awarded a grant to buy a kiln. “I’m pretty interested in being able to just develop that skill,” she said. But Ciuba is looking to soak in some more RVA before crossing the pond, she said, because “It’s definitely a different place when you’re not in school, and I would just like to be able to experience that for a little bit before I decide to move anywhere far away.”
