Adriana Carvalho made her first sculptures when she was a child, playing on the banks of a river in the Brazilian town of Taquaritinga, where she was born in 1961. From the clay beds she and her friends sculpted models of their town–“little houses, trees, people, animals, a whole scene,” she recalls. “It was great to create my own characters, my own dolls, each one with their own personality.” And she liked having the freedom to make them look however she liked. If she wanted one of her people naked, she says, “I could have her naked.”
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Carvalho calls several of her sculptures “creatures.” One creature has three wheels at its base, with nails protruding from two sides. “The nails are not sharp, can’t hurt. These “creatures’ shield themselves for defense, for protection, but at the same time you can approach them.” One of her recent projects was making brass underwear. She thought “it would be very interesting and sensual and different because I never saw metal underwear.” Among the brass undies hanging in her studio is a pair that’s elaborately “crocheted” with metal wire. Admittedly, she likes to “shock a little bit,” and is thinking of appearing in a pair of brass panties at the Around the Coyote fashion show in September.
