Joyful Assembly II (Study of a Baby’s Face)
This work continues the Belinha’s reflection on identity through the figure of the child, a site of origin often associated with unity and innocence. Here, however, the baby’s face is subtly disrupted: painted porcelain fragments are embedded within its structure, particularly in areas linked to expression and vitality. The eyes, nose, and mouth are partially constructed using these painted porcelain elements, delicately integrated so that fragmentation remains both visible and restrained.
This intervention introduces a speculative displacement. What if the essential components of our being — our vital organs, carriers of life and emotion — were fragmented, externalized, and reassembled? The face becomes a constructed surface, where identity is not given but formed through interruption and reconstruction.
Porcelain, as both fragile and enduring, operates as a material of paradox. It preserves even as it breaks, embodying memory while marking rupture. This material presence extends beyond the facial features: details on the upper part of the baby’s bonnet are composed of painted porcelain, and the buttons on the coat are also rendered in painted porcelain, reinforcing the idea that fragmentation subtly inhabits the entire form.
Around the figure, objects drawn from the infant’s world — pacifiers, bottles, and lollipops — are themselves crafted in painted porcelain. This repetition of material creates a unified yet uncanny environment, where playfulness and fragility coexist, and where the boundaries between body, object, and memory begin to dissolve.
The work proposes that identity begins not as a whole, but as an assemblage: a fragile composition of elements that precedes coherence.
