I Remember

In I Remember, Michael Guerra Foerster explores ideas of intimacy, separation, solitude, and
love through unfired clay sculptures called Floops. This work speaks specifically to the artist’s
relationship with his mother. The presence of plants in the gallery space make reference to their
connection through gardening and nurturing, which stands symbolic for the effects that kindness
and love can have. In contrast, the cold, broken clay forms exist as manifestations of the artist’s
own difficulty connecting to or embodying more altruistic ideas that seem to come so easily to
his mother and others. Unfired clay also contains a history or lifecycle, where unlike fired
ceramic work it will one day fall apart and cease to exist as it does currently. Through that
materiality of this medium, the artist makes reference to the sad brevity of connections and
relationships.
Small ceramic planters and clay sculptures are also scattered throughout the gallery. Contained
within the planters are plants cultivated in the artist’s own home, propagated from plants the
artist’s mother gifted to him. The sculptures on the other hand are seed bombs, meant to be
discarded in greenspaces, where they will gradually fall apart and give birth to wildflowers come
spring. Both of these kinds of work are free to the visitors as a gift from the artist, in the spirit of
the altruistic values he learned from his mother.
This work and the act of giving was only made possible through the 2022 Luminaria Working
Artist Fund.