Finding ancestors through clay

Kimberly Orjuela’s sculptures are inspired by pre-Columbian Indigenous artistic traditions

The exhibit Spiritual Roots uses terracotta animal sculptures. Photo Olivia Johnson

When Kimberly Orjuela works with clay, she doesn’t feel alone—her Colombian ancestors guide her craft.

Spiritual Roots, an exhibit inspired by pre-Columbian traditions and ceramics formed before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, is currently on display at Galerie Hugues Charbonneau. The exhibition uses the symbolism of jaguars, alligators and birds to discuss topics such as Indigenous ancestry and the impacts of colonialism in Colombia and other Latin American countries.

“I got really fascinated with pre-Columbian ceramics just because it was a way for me to connect with my ancestry,” Orjuela said.

At the exhibit’s centre is an installation of three birds surrounded by burnt soil. 

“It came from this idea that birds can be seen as our ancestors,” Orjuela said. “They guide us, and they have a different view of what's going on in the world than we do. I created this myth of these birds that don’t come from here. They're from outside the earth, and they came down to the planet. And they're judging us. They're confronting us.”

Orjuela is a Colombian-born visual artist based in Montreal who received her bachelor of fine arts from Concordia University in 2023. Her work has been exhibited at the Outsider Art Fair in New York City and is included in collections such as Montreal’s Collection Majudia and Toronto’s Gardiner Museum.

“She’s only 26 and already she’s had interest from museums, and she’ll have her first exhibition at a museum in the United States this year,” gallery director Hugues Charbonneau said. “This is the type of thing you hope by 40.”

Orjuela uses terracotta, a material found in pre-Columbian art. She minimizes the use of glazes—the material used to give ceramics a glossy finish—because it requires many mined materials. Instead, she decorates her pieces with coloured clays or terra sigillata, a type of clay slip made of fine clay particles mixed with some natural oxides. This gives her sculptures a matte finish.

According to gallery coordinator Mariah O'Brien, there’s a sense of a relationship with each of the works and a feeling that the sculptures are communicating something to the audience.

“I also love the way that Kim is playing with scale,” O’Brien said. “I find it very unexpected in her work. Sometimes you see a photo of a piece, and then when you ‘meet’ these figures in real life, there's a really different feeling, because sometimes they're small but very powerful.”

Orjuela moved to Canada as an infant and lived in Montreal for four years before moving to the suburbs. She explained that they were one of the few immigrant families in the area and she faced a lot of racism and prejudice. She spoke Spanish at home with parents who were very proud of their Colombian culture, but when she stepped outside, Orjuela felt she had to erase this part of herself. 

Growing up, she wasn’t familiar with the history of colonialism. She explained that her education was always “from the colonizer's perspective,” and she was taught that “Indigenous people died because Europeans were just stronger.” It wasn’t until she went to CEGEP, where she took an English class focused on Indigenous cultures, that she began to hear history from an Indigenous perspective.

“One day, in reflection in English class, it just sparked like a question: Do I have Indigenous ancestry?” Orjuela said. “I started thinking about the history of Colombia, and it started this journey of asking questions.”

Orjuela began researching the perspectives of colonized people in Latin America, and the impact of colonialism on their communities and culture.

“It angered me so much that it took me 19 years to find out about my people,” Orjuela said. “I entered a grieving period, a whole week of grieving about the pain and frustration that I had. Then I decided to make my art about my ancestors because at least with me, they're gonna live on, and whoever sees it is going to see that history with me.”

This moment of grieving marked a turning point for Orjuela, who said she had felt disconnected from her ancestry. This led her to find ways to nurture her culture.

“I had to find a way to connect to it in another way, and clay has allowed that to happen,” Orjuela said. “I don't feel like I'm alone when I create. It feels like a team. I really do feel supported by my ancestors.”

Spiritual Roots will be on display until Feb. 22 at the Galerie Hugues Charbonneau.

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 8, published January 28, 2025.