#nuuveau

[nuriaromeu]

PREGNANCY

2020 Watercolor and ink on paper 21 x 29,7 cm

by Núria Romeu Caudet

Illustration for a project on the woman condition.

[nuriaromeu]

TLÁLOC

2016 6 "papel picado" style sheets cut using a cutting plotter 29,7 x 42 cm

by Núria Romeu Caudet

“Papel picado” is an artisan product from Mexico, which is used as decoration in festivals such as the Day of the Dead. It consists of colorful silk or china paper with designs cut on them with chisels and hammers.

The use of “papel picado” as a decoration dates back to prehispanic Mexico. The Aztecs used tree barks to make a rough paper called amatl or amate, which they drilled with obsidian chisels. It was used to write codices, to offer to the Gods and to make flags and banners to decorate the temples during religious rites and ceremonies.

These “papel picado” sheets were common ornaments in the temples during the rituals associated with the rain Gods Tláloc and Chalchiuhtlicue, to obtain their favors during the month of Atlacahualo (”lack of water”).

In this project I wanted to play with the “papel picado” as a material and its cultural origin as the content of the designs, since I think it’s curious to see how something that was used to decorate temples during human sacrifices has become a colorful medium to accompany festivals and celebrations nowadays.

In the photos you can see each sheet with the sky (at different hours) as background. Each design represents a phase of the sacrifice ritual done during the day to obtain rain from the Gods.

[nuriaromeu]

OBSESSIONS, RING

2018 Brass and porcelain 8 x 5 x 5 cm

by Núria Romeu Caudet

Obsessions is a small jewelry collection born from body-related elements that recurrently appear in my subconscious.

[nuriaromeu]

FEMME FATALE

2017 Ink on paper 14,8 x 21 cm

by Núria Romeu Caudet

Work in progress.

[nuriaromeu]

SNAKE DOCTOR

2018 Softcut print 12 x 17,5 cm

by Núria Romeu Caudet

In the Southern United States, dragonflies are often called snake doctors or snake’s servants due to the folk belief that they follow snakes around and stitch up their wounds if they’re injured.

The dragonfly has other nicknames around the world, such as eye poker, eye snatcher, ear cutter, devil’s needle, adderbolt, horse stinger, the witches’ animal, devil’s darning needle, devil’s horse, etc.

[nuriaromeu]

TOAD BONE

2018 Softcut print 15,5 x 19,5 cm

by Núria Romeu Caudet

“We get these toads alive and bring them home. They have a ring round their neck and are what they call walking toads. We bring them home, kill them, and put them on a whitethorn bush. They are there for twenty four hours till they dry. Then we bury the toad in an ant-hill; and it’s there for a full month, till the moon is at the full. Then you get it out; and it’s only a skeleton. You take it down to a running stream when the moon is at the full. You watch it carefully, particular not to take your eyes off it. There’s a certain bone, a little crotch-bone it is, it leaves the rest of the skeleton and floats uphill against the stream. Well, you take that out of the stream, take it home, bake it, powder it and put it in a box; and you use oils with it the same as you do for the milch. While you are watching these bones in the water, you must on no consideration take your eyes off it. Do (if you do) you will lose all power. That’s where you get your power from for messing about with horses, just keeping your eyes on that particular bone. But when you are watching it and these bones are parting, you’ll hear all the trees and all the noises that you can imagine, even as if buildings were falling down or a traction engine is running over you. But you still mustn’t take your eyes off, because that’s where you lose your power. Of course, the noises must be something to do with the Devil’s work in the middle of the night...”

The Pattern under the Plough (1966) G.E. Evans

[nuriaromeu]

ORCHID

2017 Pencil on paper 14,8 x 21 cm

by Núria Romeu Caudet

Study illustration of a Cypripedium Fargesii orchid.

[nuriaromeu]

GÀBIA

2017 Ink on paper 21 x 29,7 cm 

by Núria Romeu Caudet.

Illustration for a project called “Flors de bogeria”, inspired by the story "The Room" from Jean-Paul Sartre's book "The Wall" (1939).