Venus on Fire

While Erika Verzutti aims to distill the essential physical qualities of natural objects, her sculptures also have a symbolic aura. Rather than attempting to capture an objective truth about her subjects, the artist presents the results of an intuitive process of material transformation. In Venus on Fire, organic forms derived from pumpkin, Annona muricata (commonly known as cherimoya, graviola, guanábana, or soursop), and Annona squamosa (fruta do condeor sugar-apple) are endowed with allusions to archeology (specially to the Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf) and ethnography, and are given a fertile erotic charge.