Cart
0
By Sérgio Carvalho, co-founder of Ra-Ro · View profile
About 3 min read
Kundera wrote an entire novel around a simple question: which weighs more, lightness or weight? He never closed it. He left it on the table for each of us to take home. I thought of it while looking at a clay hedgehog.
The Hedgehog is a glazed clay sculpture made by hand by António Ramalho, a ceramicist from Barcelos, in the Minho, great-grandson of Rosa Ramalho and son of Júlia Ramalho: an animal curled up on itself, round in form, covered in spines that don't attack. They warn.
The Ramalho surname is probably the heaviest in Portuguese ceramics. António Ramalho learned the craft at home, the way you learn to speak, with his mother nearby and his great-grandmother's work on every shelf. Inheriting this name means inheriting a yardstick.
He had to leave. António Ramalho lived for years in England and France and came back to Portugal in 2004. Distance gave him room to grow into a voice of his own. Bright colours and the glassy texture of the clay became his signature, and they are all here in this Hedgehog.
Glazed clay is clay covered with a vitreous layer that, in the firing, gives it shine, colour and a skin that protects the piece. In António Ramalho's Hedgehog that skin does something else. It marks a border. On one side, the world. On the other, what the animal would rather not expose.
Some see a threat in the spines. I see a polite warning. Come close, yes. Carefully.
Anyone who inherits a craft of this weight has two ways out: repeat what has already been done, because it works, or risk a language of their own and answer for it. António Ramalho chose the second. Carrying on the Figurado de Barcelos is also this: a choice made every day, with the freedom and the responsibility that always come together.
Do we inherit a name, or a way of looking? That's the question this piece puts to us. Perhaps both, in doses only those who carry them know.
I go back to Kundera and the question he left open. Standing before the Hedgehog, I still have no answer. But the question has grown more beautiful. And I'll look for it again in the next piece that arrives from Barcelos.
Frequently asked questions
What is António Ramalho's Hedgehog?
It is a figurative sculpture handmade in glazed clay, in the shape of a hedgehog closed in on itself; the spines warn, they do not attack.
Who makes this piece and what is its family origin?
António Ramalho, great-grandson of Rosa Ramalho and son of Júlia Ramalho, from Barcelos ceramics. He learned the craft within the family, lived for years in England and France and returned to Portugal in 2004.
Where and with what technique is it produced?
In Barcelos, in the Minho region, hand-modelled in glazed clay with a glassy texture that is one of the artist's hallmarks.
Why is it considered a rare piece?
Figurative Barcelos ceramics with this level of authorship are made by very few hands, a link in a tradition at risk.
How long does it take and what are its dimensions?
About six weeks or more to complete. It is approximately 15 cm in diameter and 20 cm in height.
How to care for and preserve this piece?
Handle with care, avoiding impacts and sudden temperature changes; clean with a dry cotton cloth or a soft brush.
