Portuguese artist shows fight in creating big installations

By BARRY HATTON and ARMANDO FRANCA
Associated Press

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos doesn’t shrink from the challenges thrown up by her latest lavish creation. She is a former nightclub bouncer and black-belt karate instructor. The 51-year-old is renowned for her big and in-your-face installations. She is now creating a ceramic wedding cake that’s 12 meters (40 feet) high and 15 meters (50 feet) wide. “The Wedding Cake” is mostly made of Portugal’s famous ceramic tiles called “azulejos.” Vasconcelos is using them in pastel pink, green, blue and yellow in what is her most ambitious outdoor project yet. It is destined for Waddesdon Manor in southeast England which hosts weddings. The unveiling is tentatively scheduled for the end of May.