Stefania Boemi

Ceramicist Stefania Boemi is redefining the colourful Moorish Heads of yore, creating monochromatic heads that seamlessly straddle tradition with modernity; dramatic splashes of gold occasionally flashing across their faces like lightning bolts.

“Legend has it that at the time of the Arab occupation, in the Kalsa district of Palermo, a beautiful Sicilian girl was watering the plants on her balcony when she was noticed by a beautiful Arab man, who fell in love at first sight,” she says. “He did everything to get to know her and conquer her, until the girl surrendered to his charm and returned his love. But soon the girl discovered that the Moor had deceived her. In fact he had a wife and children in his native town. The dishonoured girl decided to take revenge. One night she joined him and cut off his head, which she then used as a vase for a basil plant, displayed on her flowery balcony. From then on, every morning she watered her plants, full of pain, sadness and anger for her lost love.” Sicilians have been making and using Moorish Head vases ever since.

Boemi has no official training in ceramics. She has worked in neuro-rehabilitation physiotherapy for 20 years and still does so part-time. The work she does with clay is for the love of it. “The creative act for me is a solitary one, which I share only with my cats,” she says. “I operate solely by instinct and the desire to experiment.” She finds herself inspired by objects she finds. “Objects that perhaps someone has loved once but now no longer wants, that lie with neither owner nor function in some antique shop or on the stand of some flea market.”

Sicily, too, inspires her. “It is a place full of contradictions,” she says of her home. “An island full of energy, an active volcano surrounded by the sea, full of blinding light on sunny days; a place that still retains a unique magic.”