Velvet Zoé Ramos
Stobá, 2022

The research project ‘Stoba’ was in collaboration with Frank Kelly (TAKI), Kaspar Pel , Harold Kelly,
and Irvin Aguilar.
And was possible with support from Uniarte, and CATAPULT Arts Grant.

CURATORIAL TEXT SHORT DESCRIPTION

 

Stobá (2022) is a work by Velvet Zoé Ramos composed of two videos and a text in recipe format, which allow her to compile her research on the plant known in Aruba as Bembe, whose scientific name is Portulaca oleracea. On the one hand, the videos are made up of fragments of the process of harvesting and cooking with Bembe, and on the other hand, the recipe, far from giving precise instructions, seeks rather to point out sensory aspects of the ingredients that make up the dish in relation to the inhabited geographies. Velvet’s project is a commitment to the food sovereignty of each community, knowing the possibilities of growing and cooking certain ingredients and at the same time strengthening the relationship between the living beings with whom we coexist.

DETAILS
MEDIUM: VIDEO
DIMENSIONS: 3:15

Velvet Zoé Ramos is an interdisciplinary visual artist. Her work focuses on how we relate to one another and ourselves by exploring human mechanisms such as empathy, memory, and constructions of narratives. Velvet uses a wide range of techniques, from printmaking to video works and touches on themes like social and economic imbalance, human mobility (migration) representation and nostalgia.

 

Velvet graduated in 2011 with a Bia Honors in Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins, London, United Kingdom. Velvet has participated in several exhibitions as well as site-specific and community projects. She represented Aruba in a group show at the Mykonos Biennale 2021 and was selected for the 19th Asian Biennale, Bangladesh in 2022.

 

Velvet lives and works in Aruba