Tomas Monteiro

Tomas Monteiro is a ceramic artist based in Belfast. His practice examines the exploration of personal experience and his identity as a queer person. He approaches work as a syncretic experience of his life and expressions of his interests. He works with processes of mould-making, performance, sculpture, installation, and grounds his practice in ceramics. His recent work traverses the experience of a young queer artist who is self-examining ideas of queerness alongside simultaeneously trying to make sense of personal traumatic experiences he has experienced as a young queer artist including mental, physical and sexual abuse.

Bond of Memories
‘Bond of Memories‘ explores themes of connection in the context of the mind and queer sexuality. By way of ceramics, the show explores sexuality and love through the queer lens, questioning how connections occur and how queer people create and live with their chosen family. Central to Bond of Memories is the idea that experiences create inter-personal links and these links become a chain; as the chain gets larger it creates weaknesses.

“I think of memories and my mind as a chain, a chain of memories from the good ones to the bad ones. The show takes big inspiration from my childhood and core memories of it as it grabs inspiration from one of my first games; Kingdom Hearts.

When I started to think about this show I wanted it to represent my mind and how we as people have experiences that shape us. Using ceramics, audio and elements of multidisciplinary practice I was able to create this show to represent different experiences, good and bad while still pulling inspiration from core childhood memories.” – Tomas Monteiro