Nénuphar

Joana Vasconcelos

Evoking the 1960s Nouveau Réalisme movement, Marcel Duchamp’s readymades, and the symbolic, tactile constructions of Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse, Joana Vasconcelos threads everyday objects and materials together in her assemblages, which comment on womanhood, nationality, and consumerism. The artist often incorporates craft elements into her intricate, usually site-specific works, further complicating boundaries between art and domestic labor. Vasconcelos’s conceptual and formal concerns are exemplified in works such as A Noiva (The Bride) (2001–05), a six-meter-tall chandelier made from 25,000 tampons. She presented the piece at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Vasconcelos has exhibited at numerous museums worldwide, and her work belongs in the collections of the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Pinault Collection. She has also produced drawings and films.