Hedgehog

The contained beauty of vulnerability.

There is something profoundly human in António Ramalho's Glazed Clay Hedgehog. In its circular form, closed in on itself, we recognise protection and defence.
Its spines do not attack, they alert. It is at this moment that we feel a silent tension. Between the instinct to approach, the desire to know, and the challenge of not touching. But to care.

Through the hands of sculptor António Ramalho, clay ceases to be inert matter and becomes skin. A sensitive skin that marks the boundary between the world and what is most difficult for us to expose.

The hedgehog demands respect, restraint. And it is in this restraint that its greatest beauty lies, as if the piece is constantly deciding whether to close or open. Before it, we recognise ourselves. We too raise spines at times. Out of fear, out of fragility.

Great-grandson of Rosa Ramalho and son of Júlia Ramalho, two iconic names in Portuguese ceramics from Barcelos, António Ramalho learned the craft at home, but it was in England and France that he found the necessary distance to grow in his own expression. The vivid colours and vitreous texture of the clay became his signature, visible in this piece - the Hedgehog.

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