Karla García
Artist

Of Life and Myth

Presentation for Earth Makes: 2026 Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 

​

September 18 to November 1, 2026

Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art

Icheon, South Korea

​

In Of Life and Myth, I imagine a desert landscape made from ceramic cacti and grasses set across the sand dunes of Samalayuca in Chihuahua, Mexico. The installation draws from my memories of the Chihuahuan Desert, a landscape that has shaped my understanding of home, identity, and the natural world.

​

The ceramic forms are inspired by desert plants and geological formations, as well as Mesoamerican mythology and figures associated with creation, healing, and the earth. Their bodies expand and contract, mimicking the act of breathing and the ways plants respond to their environment. They carry the marks of growth, transformation, and endurance.

​

Each sculpture is built by coiling and pinching clay, allowing the material to record the presence of my hands.The glazes evoke geological formations and the passage of time with glossy passages that suggest rainwater moving across the bodies of the cacti.

​

My interpretation of Malinalxōchitl, a figure from Mexica mythology, becomes part of this imagined landscape. During the Mexica migration, she was abandoned by her brother Huitzilopochtli and his followers, yet her story continued beyond them. I imagine her as the desert itself, a living presence with her own agency. Her story reflects my own understanding of how resilience shapes who we are and how we continue to grow.

​

Through these forms, I explore the connections between human life and the natural world, where biology, memory, and mythology meet. The desert becomes a place where stories are carried through the land, and where life continues to transform across generations.

​

Image courtesy of Korea Ceramic Foundation. Photograph by Une Kim.