"By the 8th century, Greek pottery had developed narratives of daily life, personal stories, and great deeds. When l found this beautiful print, l thought of the many stories contained in a woman’s life, like the space in these amphorae and jars. Clorinda is the name of a woman l knew who once hid inside a vase in order to enter a forbidden palace…" - Cecilia Paredes

“These presentations of the self are motivated by a quest for transcendence, for a communion with nature and towards a more perfect self... Paredes’s biography and her history of displacement and adaptation to the diverse places she has called home has deeply influenced her artistic outlook. Born and raised in Peru, her political activism as a student in Lima in the 1970s forced her to leave the country. She has lived in Mexico and Costa Rica, and now for many years in the United States. Paredes defines her life outside of Peru as a form of exile, a shearing away from family and culture. And as the lone actor in these stagings, she takes on shifting guises and appears untethered to the specificities of time and place. Evoking such qualities as isolation and incertitude, she reflects the unseen, psychological dimensions of exile.” - Ferrer, Elizabeth, “Cecilia Paredes: The Two Twilights,” Ruiz-Healy Art, 2021.