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Common people and their faith. Use of material as offers to God(ess)s, hope, belief. 

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Common people and their faith. Use of material as offers to God(ess)s, hope, belief. 

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While noticing that my sculpture is "accidentaly" influenced by my own background and religion, Candomblé and Spiritism, I began collecting visual expressions of so. The use of candles, prayers and specially the simplicity of followers as well as the honesty behind their rituals and practices are what inspire me the most in this project. In practical terms, the use of candles and natural objects relate a lot to the aesthetic of my main piece (sculpture), so finding more references to keep building it was not only necessary but very inspiring.
I searched national artists from different areas of the country such as the states of Bahia and São Paulo: Luedji Luna, Luiza Lian, MC Thá and Liniker.
These artists carry religion, race, national culture and female power along with their music. I find these sources very respectful and powerful, and to create a work that intend to relate universally, I believe that I have to dig into different groups and places to do so.

I will quote each artist separately below, as well as the visual referencing from videoclips.

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I also saw this painting at my social media and the caged moon made me curious. Varo, the spanish painter that produced this in 1958 used the feeling of being trapped over war's exile. The woman is using a meat grinder to process starts into the astro's food. They are both caged, but the light shows a certain hope.
Besides using the moon as symbol of  expectation and possibility, which shows a certain spirituality with the universe and how our consciousness links certain elements to feeling; The cage also reminds me of a small video I made during the last holidays, at my grandma's house. I shot an empty bird cage, moving slightly with the wind. I can also use it as a source of material on the website or on a video.

This work also beautifully translates our current feeling of being in quarantine.
I miss the studio, the people, the touch. But there's still things to be done here, at home.
And that's how I am trying to keep pushing me towards the deliver and development of this exhibition. It's not easy, but there will be an end.

"Coming from the Museo Soumaya, Papilla Estelar translates to Star Maker in English.  Remedios Varo was exiled out of Spain during the Spanish Civil War and moved to Paris, eventually fleeing to Mexico during World War II. (1)  Papilla Estelar features a female seated in a small room that is sucking star stuff into a mill, feeding the processed star stuff to a caged moon.  Varo painted Papilla Estelar in 1958 after she fled to Mexico; the art community in Mexico was not welcoming to the European artists. (1)  The small space and caged moon creates a sense of being trapped and isolated, perhaps a reflection of how Varo felt in Mexico isolated from her homeland.  However, the milled star stuff represents hope and the action of feeding it to the moon is an attempt to transform hope into an opportunity. (2)  This painting reminds the viewer of the hope that comes out of trials and that light comes from within and that it is the viewers job to harness it."
Source: https://spanishartinternalconflict.weebly.com/papilla-estelar.html

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This is a list of quotes I see mainly on social media from literature, philosophy and psychology accounts I follow; or song lyrics. They are focused on personal development, questioning our ego and the way we might deal with life - in a good way, or not.

- Diga-me do que te gabas e
direi-lhe o que te falta, unknown

- If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking, Lyndon B. Johnson

- a carne dura menos do que qualquer madeira, Apanhador Só - song Cartão Postal

- "(...) Em suma, os versos que gritam: Temos as noites contadas.
E também os que replicam: valha-nos isso." Rui Pires Cabral, Conserve este bilhete até o final da viagem, livro Morada.

@epstemia
@opoemaensinaacair
@triptaminaworld
@__rente
@lianaferraz

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Berkowitz also gave me an experiment idea using objects and different light colors, with my RGB led tape.
I can create a series of photographies using simple objects that relate to a spiritual/emotional symbol along with a color, like an aura, that represents so - For example, a dead rose for painful egos, like a parallel to ending relationships with a pain that reflects our own faults and missing points.

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Visions and Meditations, parallel to L. Burkowitz

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Visions and Meditations, parallel to L. Burkowitz

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The following items are visions I had during meditations. Each one is from a different practice/day, and represent different emotions and intentions I kept in mind while doing so.

- Indigo light pulsating on my forehead, in the third eye shape;

- yellowish fog coming out of my chest, as a floating ball full of questions, uncertainties and limitative thoughts I was having;

- a scream for help at the back of my mind, a very desperate energy looking for an answer. That wasn't me though, so I just wished and envisioned enlightenment to whatever it was/is. After doing so, a black butterfly followed me for over  week in the most unusual places (bus window, restaurant, living room);

- seeing a very tiny doll-like shape purely white and shiny, jumping throughout my closed eyesight. To me, it was a fairy, or elementary natural energy, making me laugh and cry a lot;

- a little fat caterpillar on a tree branch eating many leaves; creating and growing  its cocoon and then slowly breaking it and opening its butterfly wings;

- a collection of objects for different feelings of enclosement: a big ball of old camera films, some dirt on the floor around it, a pile of sand, old travel case and my father sitting on it facing the floor. From the right, a very calm and happy clown wearing white and blue costume walks by and stares at me with a smile.

With those notes, I'll be creating a brainstorm list of emotions and symbols that can be related or incorporated with more sculptures/medias for the exhibition.

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While searching and reading some articles about contemporary artists dealing with spirituality in their practices, I found this North American painter (b.1911-d.1987) expressing spirituality with light.
His canvas could be described as "abstract" but to me they talk deeply with our essence, meaning energy, meaning something impossible to ignore or perceive simply as "undefined".
This paragraph from the linked source sums up well the intention of his work, and also the way I felt it myself:

"(...)
Originally working with straight lines and geometric abstractions during the 1950s and throughout the 1960s, by the 1970s and 80s Berkowitz had moved into more gossamer abstraction, creating mists of color relating more to feeling and spirit than form. He regarded his applications of thin washes of paint flowing across the canvas as acts of meditation. Berkowitz’s canvases therefore invite the viewer to look deeply into the paintings rather than simply looking at them, letting the emitted light which flows through the colors illuminate layers of worlds beyond the canvas’s surface. His “Seven Lights” series, for example, perfectly illustrates this phenomenon, where a burst of yellow or orange or red rises, sun-like, from the lower edge of the canvas and dissipates into a mist of ochres and on into a cosmic blue. For Berkowitz and the viewer, this is not a terrestrial narrative, it is a spiritual one."

Before finding this source, I also thought about the possibility of working with canvas and relating energy with the way I visualize my meditations. I started this practice last year, and in quarantine I'm trying to make it more frequent. The act is mostly very imaginative and vivid to me, and I even write about some visions I had during those. Sometimes I only see colors, fogs, shapes; but I also picture very solid environments or objects as well - like people, clothings, places, etc. On the column on the right, I will add a note with these visions as a possibility of material.

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Pablo Amaringo (b. 1938-d. 2009) of Peru was an Ayahuasquero; that is, a master of brewing the plant-based ayahuasca, an important component of indigenous Amazonian spiritual practice. In this tradition, the visions released by the ayahuasca brew have cosmological significance as well as medicinal purposes. Both attributes are present in Amaringo's colorful and complex canvasses, which he produced while under the brew's influence, reciting shamanic songs called icaros as he worked. Though his images conjure expansive varieties of flora and fauna, celestial realms, and extra-terrestrial and shamanic beings, Amaringo brings these metaphysical visions into our lived experience through precision of detail, particularly his precise and accurate renderings of the botanical life found in the Amazon region. In other words, Amaringo's spiritual visions were not mere ayahuasca induced fantasies, but based on acute observation and understanding of the real, organic world. In this way, Amaringo was able to relate our everyday world to the metaphysical one he believed exists around us. Amaringo unites the heavens and the earth, and the inhabitants of both realms in several works including "Llullon Llaki Supai". This piece from 2006 features exquisitely detailed plant life, portrait heads, waterborne life, ethereal human forms and celestial bodies. All of these elements exist in a dark yet brilliantly colored environment which seems to rip open here and there, revealing subsequent realms of existence.

Pablo Amaringo, Llullon Llaki Supai

Pablo Amaringo, Unai Shipash

For Leon Berkowitz (b.1911-d.1987), spirituality was expressed as light; light passing through color, light emanating from within color, light turning shape into air. Though born in Philadelphia, Berkowitz made his home in Washington D.C, there he and his first wife, poet Ira Fox Berkowitz, established the Washington Workshop Center for the Arts in 1945. The organization brought together creative practitioners from the visual and performing arts. Among the painters in the group were Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Gene Davis, all of whom became noted artists in their own right. Louis, Noland and Davis went on to establish the Washington Color School Group, with which Berkowitz was often linked. Berkowitz, however, rejected the idea, believing his work to be more about nature and poetry than the Color School Group's painterly experimentations.

Richard Mayhew, Above and Beyond

Though all art aspires to higher meaning, spiritually influenced art explores the human experience by elevating that experience beyond our daily reality. Artists who undertake this quest for the sublime allow themselves a creative adventure unlike any other, exploring realms which others may be unable or are too fearful to see. Artists like Pablo Amaringo, Leon Berkowitz and Richard Mayhew invite viewers to share their courage in entering into mysteries, and we are the better for it. We are enlarged by their visions.
To learn more about ACA's inventory of spiritual art or to schedule a viewing, contact the gallery here.

Courtesy Ann Aptaker, ACA Galleries

View gallery hours and contact us here.
Exhibition highlights include: a colossal unstretched canvas with five life-sized Shadowmen figures; several large single Shadowmen; and Rodeo paintings on canvas. Coming out of private collections the majority of these works have never been exhibited before.

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More Than Viewing: Three Artists Exploring Spirituality in Art

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Pablo Amaringo (b. 1938-d. 2009) of Peru was an Ayahuasquero; that is, a master of brewing the plant-based ayahuasca, an important component of indigenous Amazonian spiritual practice. In this tradition, the visions released by the ayahuasca brew have cosmological significance as well as medicinal purposes.

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As I was writing about discovering Pinto's works at Galleria Millan (reflection 22/05), this exhibition of his was the one calling my attention.
At first, I saw the use of objects (rocks, as I had the idea of working with it since yesterday) and then, a very suitable name: Buraco no Céu.
Last week I decided that my exhibition name will be "o céu é oco", which is surprisingly similar. What excited me even more was the description of this work, at the very first paragraph in this link:

"As esculturas de Túlio Pinto sugerem uma linha de tensão provocada pelo contraponto de materiais precários – naturais e industriais - como vidro, água, ferro e pedra.  Uma superfície tênue de inversão de poderes e forças . Os opostos."

Relating again to another topic of my project, the theme: Order/Disorder, where opposition was the starting point, the key word where it all begins (binary opposition, to be more specific). On the very first document for proposal, I wrote about the use of natural materials. So far, I've used a mix of industrial with nature - a metal staircase and natural white feathers, embraced with the fire from lightning candles at the very first step of the stair.
The small description quoted gave me so much inspiration and motivation! I started the day feeling lost and almost loosing my belief in my project, but now I found this source that couldn't be better.

Lastly, since I still need to select more materials, I'm keeping the same premise of mixing spiritual symbols with urban, ready-made industrials. It will work with the language I already started with as well as the concept os opposition. I'll keep looking for experimentation with plants, rocks, metals and so on.

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Nadir #quase uma ilha, 2019 | Túlio Pinto
COMUNICADO IMPORTANTE : Devido a pandemia do Covid-19, anunciado 12/3 pela Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS), recomendamos que confirmem a realização dos eventos antes de se deslocarem. As informações mudam a todo momento.Telefone para contato com a organização da exposição no final da página. Buraco no Céu, individual de Túlio Pinto, abre as atividades do Anexo Millan em 2020
Exposição acontece de 14 de março a 7 de abril

As esculturas de Túlio Pinto sugerem uma linha de tensão provocada pelo contraponto de materiais precários - naturais e industriais - como vidro, água, ferro e pedra. Uma superfície tênue de inversão de poderes e forças . Os opostos.

Túlio começou sua carreira como pintor e chegou a pensar que este seria seu caminho, mas após um curso no Parque Lage com Charles Watson o seu trabalho atingiu uma nova dimensão. Começou a experimentar, de forma intuitiva, o exercício de se trabalhar com as coisas do mundo.

Os trabalhos nascem de um processo que transita entre a precisão cartesiana e a subjetividade poética que emerge dos diálogos entre os materiais escolhidospelo artista. Cubo, planos; corda, linha; pedra, ponto; vidro, veladura. Túlio faz uso de seu vocabulário matérico assim como um pintor utiliza as palhetas de cor.

Túlio Pinto participou de notáveis exposições coletivas como Nova Escultura Brasileira, na Caixa Cultural do Rio de Janeiro e Projeto Tripé - Paralelo 30, no Sesc Pompeia. Além das individuais Trajetórias Ortogonais, no Instituto Goethe e Ground Control, na Humo Gallery, em Zurique.

Serviço

Buraco no Céu, de Túlio Pinto

Abertura: 14 de março, sábado, das 12h às 16h

Visitação: de 14 de março a 7 de abril de 2020

De segunda a sexta-feira, das 10h às 19h; sábado, das 11h às 18h

Galeria Millan

Rua Fradique Coutinho, 1360

Informações:
www.galeriamillan.com.br
(11) 3031-6007

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Exposição "Buraco no Céu" de Túlio Pinto

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Nadir #quase uma ilha, 2019 | Túlio Pinto COMUNICADO IMPORTANTE : Devido a pandemia do Covid-19, anunciado 12/3 pela Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS), recomendamos que confirmem a realização dos eventos antes de se deslocarem. As informações mudam a todo momento.Telefone para contato com a organização da exposição no final da página.

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First poem quoted from research (not selected): Os Animais Do Presépio

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"“Que metro serve para medir-nos? Que forma é nossa e que conteúdo?
Contemos algo? Somos contidos? Dão-nos um nome? Estamos vivos?”. Com essas perguntas breves e incisivas, Carlos Drummond de Andrade compôs as duas primeiras
estrofes de seu poema “Perguntas em forma de cavalo-marinho”, incitando o leitor a pensar não apenas nos sentidos da existência humana, mas também no que constitui o
próprio poema, tomado como um organismo vivo, feito de medidas, formas, sentidos intrínsecos e extrínsecos, sempre em estado de movimento.

É em torno de indagações similares às do poema drummondiano que a crítica de
poesia vem, ao longo dos tempos, buscando formas possíveis de abordagem do texto
poético, atenta às demandas culturais de cada época, aos instrumentos crítico-teóricos
disponíveis e às particularidades criativas de poetas de diferentes tradições. O que aponta para o caráter também múltiplo e cambiante do ato crítico diante da experiência poética. Em outras palavras, se a poesia é sempre outra de acordo com as inquietações de cada poeta diante do seu tempo e do próprio fazer poético, a crítica também se
pluraliza e se transforma, municiando-se de novos recursos e estratégias para lidar com
os diversos tipos de produção no campo da poesia
(...) ".

Da mesma forma que o poeta contemporâneo permite a si e a crítica a fazer está análise existencial, podendo ser mutável conforme o caráter de análise e de expectador, eu pretendo abrir este espaço para reforçar a abertura as indagações na minha obra e trabalho.

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I read this Carlos Drummond's poem book on my graduation year. There wasn't anything specific that I wanted to remember when reading through it after two years, but I knew that I could find something.
At first I found a poem that focuses on an environmental kind of life, quoting animals and then relating the writer to them. It was a good start to connect my concept of unity in the Earth, but not really towards existence.
So after going through some pages, I found a very suitable poem that incorporates all sort of doubts I would intend to propose with the project:
Perguntas em forma de cavalo marinho

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A vida rápida suspende,
entredentes, quem não
entende que do umbigo
vem gente.

O parto da cura, força
em jaula turva.
Motorizada.

Me deslumbra o tempo
Me curvo ao mundo

Cabeça fria,
Olho fundo.

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After watching a small video experiment of hers using a poem, (coração de vidro, vimeo link) I decided to write one myself, exploring the idea of having something lyrical with the show's piece.

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I was very intrigued by this specific picture while seeing her portfolio files online. Since I´m planning to use an empty room at my house that is still kinda messy, the white fabrics leyered around the environment seem like a fairytale  or divine aesthetic that can be problem solving as well.

Duchrow´s comment about the use of space for this piece,

Gottesdienst (equal to divine service), is very curious and fair to this site specific event - at a swiss chapel. This re-creation of a sacred place is sublte, without illustrative figures which in my opinion, evoke this toughtful and misterious mindset. It gave me an idea about how I can use the space at the house too, and still promote supernatural, mystic state.

"No início deste processo, muitas perguntas: O que fazer em um espaço dedicado ao culto? Como tocá-lo sem profaná-lo? Não seria o ato de profanação o próprio ato de liberdade? A construção deste trabalho ocorreu durante o período de três semanas de residência em Dangio. "

She also made a film of the proccess to play on the chapel.

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Gottesdienst é uma performance realizada na pequena capela da fábrica de chocolate Cima Norma em Dangio /Suíça. A palavra alemã Gottesdienst pode ser traduzida como "serviço divino". A antiga capela, hoje desativada, era usada no início do século pelo funcionários da fábrica de chocolate. Dizem que foi construída sobre uma gruta onde os celtas faziam oferendas a divindades femininas. No início deste processo, muitas perguntas: O que fazer em um espaço dedicado ao culto? Como tocá-lo sem profaná-lo? Não seria o ato de profanação o próprio ato de liberdade? A construção deste trabalho ocorreu durante o período de três semanas de residência em Dangio. As cortinas utilizadas na performance foram encontradas nos depósitos da fábrica, lavadas com lavanda e estendidas na capela até que a sacristia ficasse completamente vedada.
The German word Gottesdienst can be translated as divine service. Using video, sound and smell, Gottesdienst is a performance held in the small chapel of the Cima Norma chocolate factory in Dangio, Switzerland. Local people say it was built over a cave where the Celts made offerings to female deities. At the beginning of this process, many questions: What to do in a space dedicated to worship? How to touch it without desecrating it? Is not the act of desecration the very act of freedom? True communion with the spirit? The construction of this work took place during the three week residency in Dangio.

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Gottesdienst é uma performance realizada na pequena capela da fábrica de chocolate Cima Norma em Dangio /Suíça. A palavra alemã Gottesdienst pode ser traduzida como "serviço divino". A antiga capela, hoje desativada, era usada no início do século pelo funcionários da fábrica de chocolate.

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With the solo exhibition Cômodo, Albuquerque uses the space with crochet knitted by himself, chains and a triangle of bones over a wall. I don´t particularly relate to his work in relation to my project, but I appreciate his description over the fabric material (quoted below) as a way to relate tactile pieces human-made, specially during these times where we´re locked down and preparing for an online show:
"Sobre o que falamos quando apresentamos tecidos como obras de arte? Há uma opção quanto à fatura destas obras: elas são feitas à mão. O tempo humano entra na equação por essa porta. Os tecidos estão no mundo, não são virtualidade. São simultaneamente matéria presente e resíduo processual."

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Período

09/11/2019 - 08/02/2020

Horário de funcionamento

Ter - sab, 13h - 19h

Entrada

entrada franca

Sobre o que falamos quando apresentamos tecidos como obras de arte? Há uma opção quanto à fatura destas obras: elas são feitas à mão. O tempo humano entra na equação por essa porta. Os tecidos estão no mundo, não são virtualidade. São simultaneamente matéria presente e resíduo processual.
Daniel Albuquerque

No dia 09 de novembro, às 15h, o Pivô inaugura a exposição Cômodo, de Daniel Albuquerque. A mostra integra o programa Hello.Again, em que projetos inéditos de artistas em início de carreira são apresentadas na recepção da instituição, uma vitrine de 70m2 no térreo do edifício Copan. Albuquerque explora as potencialidades do espaço para dar continuidade à investigação sobre as implicações do uso do tecido como matéria de produção poética.

Cômodo reúne uma série de composições feitas em tricô sustentadas por correntes tensionadas por pesos pendendo do teto até o chão. As linhas verticais e horizontais que formam o quadro são distorcidas pela relação de forças criada pelos materiais distintos que compõem suas partes. Segundo Albuquerque, submetido às condições do espaço e da gravidade, o tricô pode ser entendido como um corpo presente, mas também como índice de seu processo de feitura.

Denominados Quartos, os trabalhos desta série enfrentam o problema da perspectiva espacial como construção cultural que orienta nossos modos de ver. Afinal, a maneira que enxergamos o mundo é intrínseca à visão ou aprendemos a enxergar dessa forma?

Albuquerque está interessado em explorar as diferentes percepções provocadas no espaço da recepção do Pivô: uma vitrine, lugar que se situa em posição intermediária entre exterior e interior. Além disso, a trama do tricô permite que se enxergue através dele, integrando os vazios à composição espacial. Para o artista, o positivo (a matéria) é entendido como continuidade do negativo do espaço vazado. Transparente e opaco se complementam.

Daniel Albuquerque, 1983, vive e trabalha em Rio de Janeiro

Mestrando em História Social da Cultura, na PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Foi residente no programa Pivô Pesquisa em 2015/2016. Exposições individuais recentes: "Oral", BFA Boatos Fine Arts, São Paulo, SP, 2017 e "Good Day", Projeto especial, Galeria Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, "To Daddy", curadoria Marina Coelho, Kunsthalle São Paulo, São Paulo, SP e "Bikini Projects #2", curadoria Marina Coelho, Kubik Gallery, Porto, Portugal, 2016. Coletivas de destaque: "36º Panorama de Arte Brasileira: Sertão", curadoria Julia Rebouças, MAM-SP, 2019; "Circularidade vã", curadoria Guilherme Marcondes e João Paulo Quintella, Espaço Foz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ; "A terceira mão", curadoria Erika Verzutti, Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, SP; "Daniel Albuquerque & Puppies Puppies", BFA Boatos Fine Arts, Milão, Itália, 2017 e "Lastro em campo", curadoria Beatriz Lemos, SESC Consolação, São Paulo, SP; "Permanências & Destruições", curadoria João Paulo Quintella, Rio de Janeiro, RJ; e "Choro e lágrimas não têm sotaque" , curadoria Fernanda Brenner, Camden Arts Council, Swiss Cottage Library, Londres, Inglaterra, 2017.

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Daniel Albuquerque: "Cômodo" @Hello.Again - Exposições - Pivô

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Sobre o que falamos quando apresentamos tecidos como obras de arte? Há uma opção quanto à fatura destas obras: elas são feitas à mão. O tempo humano entra na equação por essa porta. Os tecidos estão no mundo, não são virtualidade. São simultaneamente matéria presente e resíduo processual.

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I visited this exhibition on 2018 at Museu da Casa Brasileira. The blank environment felt painful to the eye, but it was hypnotizing to walk over these blocks. An entire white room felt different just because of the shapes placed, while mixing the perceptions of flat x dimension.

As part of the work´s description, quoted from the link:
"(...)
Primeiramente, pare na soleira da porta, olhe para frente e admire. Isto é arquitetura, já diria o egrégio mestre, “o jogo sábio, correto e magnífico dos volumes dispostos sob a luz”. Cada elemento é rigorosamente dimensionado. Cada perspectiva está precisamente articulada. Cada passo a ser dado foi previamente determinado. Apresento-lhe o modo correto de ver este lugar.
(...)
A diagonal do longo volume direcionará seus olhos para uma fotografia. Uma imagem daqui mesmo. O ato de enquadrar é digno àquilo que é imaculado e transcendental, como este ambiente que você está adentrando. Somente luz e sombra. Uma aproximação de um canto, de uma fresta, de planos que se diferenciam por sfumatos. (...)

Agora você está livre. Fez-se aberta a porta de saída deste discurso espacial. A experiência condicionada. Não mais seguirá sob meu controle. Porém, ingênuo será se pensar que o determinismo não prosseguirá nas próximas salas, ruas, cidades. Você acha que tem liberdade?                                                                                                                                            O Arquiteto"

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O Movimento e a Pausa, instalação produzida para a exposição Experimentando Le Corbusier, Museu da Casa Brasileira (2018)

A construção do olhar é um dos princiais motes da instalação que Ivan Padovani propõe para a exposição Experimentando Le Corbusier. Uma série de módulos dispostos por toda sala, oferecem ao visitante diferentes percursos e campos de visão, orientando o olhar em direção às fotografias produzidas sobre o próprio espaço expositivo.

Neste site specific, que também faz referência ao conceito de promenade architecturale, Ivan Padovani trata da estreita relação entre a imagem, arquitetura e escultura, promovendo uma experiência tátil, visual e espacial onde a fotografia assume a função de mediar a fruição do ambiente. Desta forma a obra só se torna efetiva a partir da vivência do observador ao caminhar e experienciar a instalação durante seu deslocamento pelo espaço expositivo.

Ao assumir o branco sobre branco, estratégia explorada de forma recorrente na produção do artista, o trabalho reforça também uma das frases mais célebres do arquiteto: "A arquitetura é o jogo sábio, correto e magnífico dos volumes dispostos sob a luz".

O projeto tem como fundamento algumas obras e croquis de Le Corbusier, como a Casa do Lago Léman, o ático de Bestegui e o Ministério da Educação no Rio de Janeiro, nas quais fica clara a intenção do arquiteto construir um olhar sobre a paisagem. Ivan Padovani faz um paralelo deste aspecto com uma das características primordiais da fotografia que é o enquadramento - decisão radical que também é marcante em sua produção. Mas também se volta para projetos desenvolvidos durante a primeira fase de Le Corbusier, nas quais o branco ou efemeridade eram mais presentes, como Maison Roche, Pavilhão Spirit Nouveaux e Villa Savoye.

O trabalho não se resume apenas à instalação em si, mas se completa com texto de Francesco Perrotta-Bosch, O Arquiteto, e com a posterior documentação fotográfica da exposição.

Curadoria: Pierre Colnet e Hadrien Lelong

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vá até o Museu da Casa Brasileira. Adentre o eclético palacete. Transpasse o pequeno vestíbulo. Atravesse o largo saguão. Quando chegar ao salão de acesso ao jardim, deixe o eixo central do Solar e vire à direita. Verá um portal para um alvo ambiente onde parece emanar luminosidade. Vá para este espaço.

Primeiramente, pare na soleira da porta, olhe para frente e admire. Isto é arquitetura, já diria o egrégio mestre, "o jogo sábio, correto e magnífico dos volumes dispostos sob a luz". Cada elemento é rigorosamente dimensionado. Cada perspectiva está precisamente articulada. Cada passo a ser dado foi previamente determinado. Apresento-lhe o modo correto de ver este lugar.

À sua direita, há um bloco à meia altura. À esquerda, há um pequeno cubo frente a uma mureta que lhe permitirá ver o que há por trás. Siga reto por entre eles.

A diagonal do longo volume direcionará seus olhos para uma fotografia. Uma imagem daqui mesmo. O ato de enquadrar é digno àquilo que é imaculado e transcendental, como este ambiente que você está adentrando. Somente luz e sombra. Uma aproximação de um canto, de uma fresta, de planos que se diferenciam por sfumatos.

Contorne a mureta e você se verá frente a dois blocos esbeltos: um encostando na parede, outro colado à mureta. Prossiga pelo intervalo que há entre o duo. Você se deparará com um volume de altura pouco maior que o nível do olho: você tem as dimensões do modulor, certo?

Eis que você se encontra no centro da sala. Faça um giro com o corpo. Contemple o conjunto. Tudo é branco sobre branco. Massas distintas, recintos segmentados, superfícies desalinhadas, pouco importa: toda divisão se pacifica na alvura.

Aqui também há uma bifurcação. Por um lado, você terá o caminho mais largo, porém mais curto. Pelo outro, terá o recinto mais fragmentado repleto de arestas e quinas. Enfie-se no canto de ângulo agudo: será o único esconderijo a que, por aqui, terá direito. Mas, saia dele e siga a promenade architecturale. Aqui até você pode retornar à porta por onde iniciou esta breve jornada - não faça isso.

Invariavelmente ficará diante de uma imagem que reafirma o controle exercido do autor (i.e., eu, a autoridade) sobre a visão do usuário.

À direita da foto, verá a mais estreita passagem. Atravesse-a de lado, mas não toque nas brancas paredes. Não vá conspurcar o alvor que tudo esclarece e indefine: os frágeis contornos da mesma gama de cores em concomitância ao credo na lucidez da razão e da ciência. Para que não esqueça disso, antes de sair, você vai se deparar com a última fotografia: tão branca quanto tudo que por aqui encontrou.

Agora você está livre. Fez-se aberta a porta de saída deste discurso espacial. A experiência condicionada. Não mais seguirá sob meu controle. Porém, ingênuo será se pensar que o determinismo não prosseguirá nas próximas salas, ruas, cidades. Você acha que tem liberdade?

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O Movimento e a Pausa, instalação produzida para a exposição Experimentando Le Corbusier, Museu da Casa Brasileira (2018) A construção do olhar é um dos princiais motes da instalação que Ivan Padovani propõe para a exposição Experimentando Le Corbusier.

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I like this idea of giving life to an inanimate object, specially with the little fingers that seem to walk.
It made think about matters that I could use to animate things, and even creating someting similar over a white wall - with the purpose of changing the feeling of a physical barrier, into an emotional interaction.

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Baranga is a israeli artist that mostly makes sculptures. A specific work of hers, Crowd (2010), reminds me of the in-between from still life and actual organisms. It mixes oppositions with a weird feeling of realism, as the mouths emerge from normal utensils or walls. As she mentions on the website:
The Blurred Border Between the Living and the Still
"In the following series of works, I sculpted human mouths and fingers emerging from tableware. The blurred border between the living and the still in these works is intriguing. It makes you think. In this combination of the still and the alive joined as one, I try to change the way in which we observe useful tableware. The useful, passive, tableware can now be perceived as an active object, aware of itself and its surroundings - responding to it. It does not allow to be taken for granted, to be used. It decides on its own how to behave in the situation. This is how I prefer to think about my plates and cups. Metaphorically, of course. What about you... ?"

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Clay sculpture by Israeli artist, Ronit Baranga.

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"O Sagrado é Amor", exhibition at Fortes D'Aloia Gallery, 2017. SP.
https://www.benshimolarte.com/artes-visuales/luis-alberto-benshimol-chonchol-ernesto-neto-lo-sagrado-es-el-amor/

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As I had some ideas before falling asleep last night, I made a reflection padlet about this piece. Reminding me of mutual relations and how they can be both existent, remembered and not present, I wrote:
"I remembered Ernesto Neto's exhibition at Pinacoteca (2019), specially a crochet vest that supported 3 people at once, each one on an extreme of the piece. They would all support each other by body weight and position, and if one left the relation and balance is also absent."

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Visitantes podem interagir com as obras de Ernesto Neto na pinacoteca de SP

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A exposição "Ernesto Neto - Sopro" leva até a pinacoteca 60 obras do artista e promete ser uma experiência para os cinco sentidos.

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Keys: change, need, discomfort, identity and memory. "Recycling" (not replacing) relations that were once a conflict or trauma.
Transexual woman artist.

" I was born a woman. I am a woman now. I will die a woman. On November 18, 2008, I had gender clarification surgery. For one year before and one year after, I took pictures of myself every week to document the subtle changes my body underwent. In total there are 1886 pictures. Only 32 have been selected for the zoetrope. Each photo is a building block. Their meaning is cumulative and at the same time presenting this in the Busan Biennale was an historic achievement.

(...)

Many portraits of transgender people are limited to “before” and “after,” the “black and white” of sex: male or female. Mostly by those who are not selves trans but rather utilizing transgender bodies as a spectacles for profit and/or entreatment. Making us “other” rather then human.these ideas reinforced by Hollywood enable violence. In order to survive many transgender people stay closeted or keep their past a secret. To fight the media troupes I explore the visual changes in my body through the process of the transition, the slight changes that span many months and, in some cases, years. The gray rather than the “black” or “white” of male or female. The genitals so many are focused on are just a tiny part of the body with only one change, however for examples my hair is a lot more interesting, changing from portrait to portrait."

"My journey through the physical and spiritual reality of Fukushima is part of a life-long quest to explore and document spaces that were affected by trauma," she explained. "My explorations focus on places that are mostly forgotten and traumas whose physical signs have been erased or are invisible. These places are in fact home to a new reality. It is at this intersection where my work takes place." Yishay Garbasz

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A text from Revista Trip about the dishonest and unbalanced relations between freedom and the engines that seem to provide it in today's World. A brief thought about our origin, truth and history as well - contemplating scientific and social sites.

"Como tudo contém petróleo, nossas liberdades dependem de continuarmos furando, devastando e depois comercializando através desse lugar ficcional que chamamos de “mercado”. Ser livre, ensinaram para cada um e cada uma de nós, é ter o direito de escolher o que comprar, para onde ir, como ir. As coisas que sabemos sobre liberdade passam por essa abstração que se chama mercado, por ter dinheiro suficiente para fazer escolhas e consumir. Liberdade, contaram, começa com um mercado que se autorregula, que flutua soberanamente pela maré da oferta e da procura. Justiça vem a partir disso: quem se esforça, consegue. Quem não se esforça, padece. Somos indivíduos e temos cada um de nós direito a nossas liberdades individuais. É assim que aprendemos a ser fortes, a não reparar no corpo caído na esquina, a não chorar pela mulher que dorme com seu filho em frente à agência bancária. Mas não é assim que é, e essa mentira que nos moldou é aquela que vai nos matar.

Ou não. Mas para isso temos que começar a nos deseducar. Temos que desaprender, temos que provocar um colapso completo do indivíduo e, com ele, da sociedade.

Não existem indivíduos porque não somos, como a palavra sugere, indivisíveis. Somos, pelo contrário, atravessados e atravessadas por dúvidas, medos, contradições, pensamentos perturbadores, desejos indizíveis. Precisamos falar sobre isso, descer de nossos pedestais seculares, encontrar nossa real humanidade – que é falha, vulnerável, amedrontada, desesperada por solidariedade, por afeto, por amor."
Milly Lacombe, journalist and writer for Trip.

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Alguns acontecimentos se vestem de apocalipse para avisar, de forma pouco gentil, que somos tudo e todos uma coisa só. Calamidades fazem parte da história desse planeta desde o dia um. Somos resultado de caos, de explosões, de grandes impactos e de resíduos e detritos que deram um jeito de se encontrar para formar nossa magnífica lua e esse planeta tão improvável que flutua pelo espaço em sua solitária dança cósmica. É o que chamamos de casa, mas que poderia também ser chamada de nave-mãe - um conceito elaborado por astronautas que tiveram a chance de observar o planeta a partir de um outro ponto de vista.

É aqui dentro dele que a gente faz amor, planta e colhe, ergue pontes, da à luz, escreve livros, textos, estudos, faz pesquisas, descansa em redes, pesca, se beija e se abraça, vai ao supermercado, bebe vinho com amigos e amigas. É também aqui que a gente espanca aqueles que não se parecem com a gente e mata os que manifestam orgulhosamente por aí desejos que preferiríamos esconder de nós mesmos. Aqui que a gente derruba florestas, polui rios, caça animais sem precisar comê-los, arranca do solo tudo o que podemos arrancar para transformar em combustível para que possamos executar o que entendemos por liberdade: viajar, andar de carro, de trem, de avião, comprar roupas, produtos para nossa pele, para nossos cabelos, adquirir móveis, imóveis, eletroeletrônicos, o celular novo, aquele computador de última geração.

Como tudo contém petróleo, nossas liberdades dependem de continuarmos furando, devastando e depois comercializando através desse lugar ficcional que chamamos de "mercado". Ser livre, ensinaram para cada um e cada uma de nós, é ter o direito de escolher o que comprar, para onde ir, como ir. As coisas que sabemos sobre liberdade passam por essa abstração que se chama mercado, por ter dinheiro suficiente para fazer escolhas e consumir. Liberdade, contaram, começa com um mercado que se autorregula, que flutua soberanamente pela maré da oferta e da procura. Justiça vem a partir disso: quem se esforça, consegue. Quem não se esforça, padece. Somos indivíduos e temos cada um de nós direito a nossas liberdades individuais. É assim que aprendemos a ser fortes, a não reparar no corpo caído na esquina, a não chorar pela mulher que dorme com seu filho em frente à agência bancária. Mas não é assim que é, e essa mentira que nos moldou é aquela que vai nos matar.

Ou não. Mas para isso temos que começar a nos deseducar. Temos que desaprender, temos que provocar um colapso completo do indivíduo e, com ele, da sociedade.

Não existem indivíduos porque não somos, como a palavra sugere, indivisíveis. Somos, pelo contrário, atravessados e atravessadas por dúvidas, medos, contradições, pensamentos perturbadores, desejos indizíveis. Precisamos falar sobre isso, descer de nossos pedestais seculares, encontrar nossa real humanidade - que é falha, vulnerável, amedrontada, desesperada por solidariedade, por afeto, por amor.

Quando somos ensinados, desde nossos primeiros contatos com outros, a competir, estamos nos afastando do que temos de mais precioso. Essa internalização de que somos indivíduos que competem entre si é a que faz com que, em situações de calamidades, corramos para salvar o que nos pertence, para proteger uns poucos que estão ao nosso redor e que dizemos amar. Não existe "o outro" em momentos de grandes tragédias. Existe apenas "eu" e "os meus".

E mesmo que consigamos pegar o último tubo de álcool gel da prateleira da farmácia depois de dar uma cotovelada na mulher que tentava alcançá-lo antes de mim não estaremos felizes. Contaremos a história de como chegamos antes à prateleira com orgulho para amigos mais próximos e esconderemos todos os sentimentos difíceis de serem compreendidos que nos isolam e nos devastam. Será que a mulher precisava da garrafa mais do que eu? Poderia ser necessária para a mãe dela, de quem ela cuida e que está em casa doente? Somos encorajados a pensar que esses devaneios não interessam porque o mundo é dos que vencem, não dos que perdem. Uma sociedade que divide seus membros entre perdedores e vencedores vai sempre nos legitimar a agir como indivíduos gananciosos, individualistas, egoístas. E agir ou pensar assim jamais nos tornará completos, felizes ou livres.

Liberdade não tem nada a ver com escolhas. Liberdade não é individual. Liberdade ou alcança a todos ou jamais será.

Quando a notícia de que um vírus pode afetar a vida de muitos de nós, tendemos a pensar apenas nesse nosso pequeno círculo de afetos, salvar meu corpo e os de quem amo, sem considerar que inevitavelmente seremos inundados pela perturbadora noção de que estamos mais unidos do que poderíamos racionalmente supor. Um vírus que nasceu lá no oriente e em poucas semanas alcançou todas as nações traz recados importantes sobre quem somos e como vivemos. Um mesmo vírus que, cedo ou tarde, você e eu teremos. Um vírus que poupa crianças, mas é implacável com os mais velhos. Um vírus que estará em nossas prisões superlotadas, que se infiltrará pela pele dos que moram na rua, dos que moram nas favelas, dos que terão que seguir se locomovendo através de transporte público porque recebem por dia e, mesmo doentes, não podem correr o risco de não receber. Um vírus que vai tornar expostas as mais horrendas fraturas de nossos sistema e de nossa sociedade.

Minha previsão é a de que teremos que reavaliar muitas coisas. Nossas relações mais próximas estarão em teste já que, de quarentena, passaremos dias e dias dentro de casa. Reavaliar as relações de trabalho porque veremos que tipo de serviços e de produção exigem de fato a presença física de trabalhadores e quais podem existir de forma remota. Reavaliar a solidariedade, especialmente com os mais velhos que não poderão sair e dependerão da ajuda de amigos, parentes e estranhos para se alimentar, para receber afeto até em isolamento. Um vírus que obrigará a economia a desacelerar e que provavelmente vai nos mostrar que, ao contrário do que nos ensinaram, economia não é uma ciência sobre números, mas sobre vidas, corpos, almas, relações.

Ainda que por algumas semanas apenas, pararemos de furar com tanto ímpeto. Pararemos de comprar com tanta fúria. Pararemos de explorar com tanta raiva. Um vírus que vai nos obrigar a encontrar outras formas de estar nesse mundo. É curioso que um vírus com essas características tenha aparecido em nosso planeta justamente agora, quando um tsunami fascista ameaça as diferentes formas de vida que com tanta luta conseguiram conquistar algum espaço, alguma legitimidade, alguma representatividade.

Um vírus que nos convida ao recolhimento, a construir um novo circuito de afetos, ao cuidado com nós mesmos, com os que amamos e com os mais vulneráveis. São essas as ocasiões em que nos vemos como os astronautas nos veem: dentro de uma mesma nave, afetando uns aos outros e ao meio ambiente com cada uma de nossas pequenas ações, a cada toque, a cada abraço, a cada beijo, a cada respiração. Prosperar, afinal, não é enriquecer e gastar, mas sobreviver e acolher.

Às vésperas de mergulharmos naquilo que se anuncia como um grande caos compartilhamos de uma mesma emoção: a de desamparo. Ao contrário de fazer com que ela seja ruim, a hora pede que a afirmemos. Tudo vai desmoronar, tudo vai ser destruído, e não há nada de errado nisso porque uma nova sociedade se faz necessária e ela só virá com a destruição de um modo de vida que não nos serve mais. Ser capaz de aceitar o descontrole faz nascer revoluções. Como sugeriu Vladimir Safatle, mudar o mundo não é apenas transformar o poder ou redistribuir riqueza, mas também alterar completamente a forma como circulamos afetos. É um vírus que diz mais sobre o outro do que sobre nós mesmos; cuidar de si não porque trata-se de um vírus altamente mortal, mas cuidar de si para não contaminar os demais, os mais fracos, os mais vulneráveis. Cuidar de si porque não existimos sozinhos. Cuidar de si porque o que sai de mim afeta de formas muitas vezes irreversíveis quem está a meu lado. Novos sujeitos e novos jeitos de estar no mundo produzem um novo mundo. É o momento de a gente criar aquilo que a gente não sabe o que é.

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Alguns acontecimentos se vestem de apocalipse para avisar, de forma pouco gentil, que somos tudo e todos uma coisa só. Calamidades fazem parte da história desse planeta desde o dia um.

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“Natureza política de um espaço construído I”, 2015, acrílica sobre madeira, livro, páginas de livros, barra de ferro, tijolos de concreto, 160×74 cm

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(São Paulo, SP)

A Zipper Galeria apresenta, entre os dias 5 de maio e 4 de junho, a individual "isso se dá porque" de Bruno Kurru e curadoria de Galciani Neves. Na exposição Kurru discute as modulações de ajustamento social, experimentando e expandindo as noções de pintura como procedimento.

O título da quarta individual do artista Bruno Kurru remete a um duplo movimento, tal como uma seta que aponta para direções opostas: um sentido de referencialidade, daquilo que vem antes, mas que permanece cego; e um sentido de continuação e consequência que se pulveriza de maneira nem assertiva, nem definitiva.

Com curadoria de Galciani Neves, a mostra apresenta um percurso poético do artista que se desenrola e expande a lógica, a estética e o entendimento de pintura como linguagem específica. Kurru coleta e se apropria de questões e atravessamentos sociais, políticos e culturais e os fragmenta e os reconfigura em narrativas. A colagem, a montagem e o pensamento por associação são alguns de seus principais recursos para tal empreitada. A lógica construtiva desses trabalhos se dá na tentativa de abordar os problemas comuns e tão urgentes sem lhes propor um solução, mas antes articulá-los em outros contextos: no campo da arte, para quem sabe possamos enxergá-los e discuti-los a partir de uma outra perspectiva.

Assim, acúmulos de imagens, de objetos do cotidiano, citações, camadas informes, situações casuais, manchas de cor, garatujas e imagens disponíveis na cidade são sobrepostos, intencionando pensamentos ritmados, percepções descompassadas e instigando um passeio um tanto incerto, um tanto fragmentado do público pelas "pinturas-instalações-objetos". Estão juntos numa convivência nada consensual: Galuber Rocha, Tarkoviski, uma faixa de pedestre, citações, imagens desconcertantes provenientes da internet, registros afetivos, representações de paisagens. Nesse sentido, o espaço é também um componente para estes trabalhos: ao mesmo tempo que os trabalhos articulam fisicamente a arquitetura da galeria, o espaço é superfície de aderência dos trabalhos. Os trabalhos se deixam desenhar pelo espaço, enquanto desenham o espaço.

Em termos da visualidade construída pelo artista, está em questão uma espécie de jogo entre um "dentro e fora da pintura", como afirma. Ou seja, entre o que de pronto poderia se reconhecer como esquema compositivo da pintura, e o que se expande para o espaço, para os objetos, para esquemas pictóricos disponíveis nas paredes, no chão, em vídeos e textos. O artista acredita que dessa maneira "não sobrecarrega o objeto", mas antes lhe confere uma forma complexa que transborda para fora outros tantos esquemas visuais.
Veja algumas obras do artista:
"isso se dá porque", individual de Bruno Kurru
Curadoria de Galciani Neves.
Abertura: 5 de maio, das 19h às 22h.
Em cartaz até 04 de junho

Zipper Galeria
R. Estados Unidos 1494, Jardim América
Segunda a sexta, 10h/19h; sábado, 11h/17h
T: +55 (11) 4306-4306
zipper@zippergaleria.com.br

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Bruno Kurru se apropria de questões e atravessamentos sociais, políticos e culturais em "Isso se dá porque"

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(São Paulo, SP) O título da quarta individual do artista remete a um duplo movimento, tal como uma seta que aponta para direções opostas: um sentido de referencialidade, daquilo que vem antes, mas que permanece cego; e um sentido de continuação e consequência que se pulveriza de maneira nem assertiva, nem definitiva.

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Creating assemblages and sculptures that really look like 3D collages. When I saw formal, documentary like images of his works, I though he was a collagist. After some research I saw that everything is physical, outside of paper or digital matter and it was a very nice turning point. Some look like a very informal way of placing materials in the corner of a wall but also as beautiful and even decorative pieces. Kurru is a Brazilian artist that lives and works in São Paulo, a fact that  really made me want to visit his atelier and talk to him/see his works.

"Bruno Kurru articula em seus trabalhos, camadas de imagens e escritos como estratégia para a construção de sua poética, mantendo reflexões contínuas sobre a ocupação do espaço, seja ele a superfície da pintura, seja o espaço real. Porém, ao suplantar uma carga ideológica, o artista desloca a função social do discurso, invertendo os sujeitos – alvo e disparador – das ações políticas.”- from https://www.premiopipa.com/pag/bruno-kurru/

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Light screened trucks in front of Whitney Museum of American Art, Times Square and other urban sites.

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I loved the topics of her works, including feminism, equal rights and AIDS that don't necessarily mention them literally, but pursue this strong, rightful background. This image below for instance is an example of the harsh and intriguing yet powerful matters she deals with. The image after this post is as well an example, this time for World AIDS Day in 2018. I think the texts pictured already speak for themselves and for this cause, even though she didn't had the need to explicitly write this disease's name with a flag shipped quotation, which is amazing and poetic.

"Jenny Holzer é uma artista conceitual norte-americana conhecida principalmente por suas grandes exposições públicas, que incluem anúncios em outdoors, projeções em edifícios e outras estruturas arquitetônicas, bem como displays eletrônicos iluminados. O foco principal de seu trabalho, que não necessariamente segue uma lógica, é o uso de palavras e ideias no espaço público.

A série de maior popularidade é intitulada "truisms". Segundo o Houaiss, "truísmo" significa "verdade incontestável ou evidente por si mesma; coisa tão óbvia que não precisa ser mencionada; banalidade, obviedade".

O termo "arte conceitual" foi cunhado pela primeira vez por Sol LeWitt, no texto "Parágrafos sobre a arte conceitual", publicado na "Artforum". O artista demonstra despreocupação com a percepção do público no que concerne à compreensão da obra:"

It doesn't really matter if the viewer understands the concepts of the artist by seeing the art. Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.

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These are two American female artists who work a lot with text and installations or posters. Most of Kruger’s works consist on black and white portrait photos with typography art, maintaining this palette with some bright red captions as well. They look like eye catching posters, but aesthetically they do not please me. Everything looks like it belongs to a same ad campaign with some imagery changes. She does mixes techniques but the attachment to the same visuals seem to “squared" in my opinion, even though she creates the designs herself, they don’t look very Fine Arts-y if I could tell. I would like to explore more contents and medias rather than this model of hers in my practices, so she is not a big inspiration personally but it is good to see that she can name herself both as a conceptual artist and collagist, which are two fields I really enjoy producing.

Holzer, although works mainly with text as well, has an open field of installations and deep but minimal phrases with hints of a protest kind of debate. I would like to explore more medias than text only, but her works are very powerful and straight forward, which is something I could exercise as well since plenty of my portfolio works are very much conceptual from project to outcome processes.

Barbara Kruger art

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When trying to write my personal statement in appliance for Graphic Design’s BA, I felt out of place in some aspects. I do want to get bigger knowledge of this area and really believe it can help me with further works and practice, since technology is a worldwide important topic when dealing with any kind of media - including Visual Arts, where my main interest is. I’m looking forward to enter in this course (that is not open yet at ebac) more than into Graphics, although I appreciate the design and digital contents that I’ll learn in the last one - the first option for now. It’s being somehow hard to write the statement with that much honesty, since I’m afraid this may not convince the reader about my course option. anyways, my tutors Carlos and Cezar told me to be honest about it instead of pretending to be something I’m not. To help me with this decision, Carlos recommended me to research artists that mix techniques from Visual Arts and Graphic Design, so the following topics below are from these references. Also as a help and guidance to maybe help my uncertainty about it and get more reasons to write on my text.

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Sandra Lapage was also a reference to the creation of the hair grid (or sheet). I appreciate her use of organic materials, revealing delicate and ephemeral subjects. To the Live Screen Project, I went through this accumulative act that was storming my hair for almost two years without even knowing where I would use it at or for. At the end, it ended as a good example of idea generation, using vanity and decadence towards it.

I relate to Lapage’s comment about her work - ‘’My work is made of impurity, of error, of failure, of frustration, of insubordination, of excessiveness and of organic accumulation.’’ - because the act of collecting my ‘organic matter’, in a way that does not feel like myself anymore, possibly show a lot about excessiveness as well. She produced a hair piece, ‘Witnesses’, that also has patterns of that same matter. A necklace of hair feels very vulnerable specially when adorning a woman, or her neck - in my vision, somehow close to Hatoum’s perspective as well.

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How through this cacophony, a cacophony of excess and uncertainty and indecision, we invite the viewer to find the possible sense.
How through this cacophony, a cacophony of excess and uncertainty and indecision, we invite the viewer to sit with us and contemplate the impossibility of finding sense.-William Kentridge, Six drawing lessons, 2014

Forme prophétique de l'expression artistique renouant par-delà les siècles, avec la plus ancienne tradition de l'enthousiasme, avec la poésie originelle: celle, chamanique, hésiodique, des hommes faisant parler les dieux-Paul Ardenne, on Beuys [Goldberg, Itzhak, Installations, (CNRS Editions, Paris, 2014), 230]

Photo credits: Mario de Toledo Sader in Berenice's Garden, 2015

madness
bricolage

subconscious
impurity

uncertain
invention

irrational
incoherence

organic
cacophony

collection (of)
excess

recognising without knowing
meaning from material

insubordinate
accumulation

non linear
dissonance

ephemeral
femininity

My work deals with the illusion of control: in my point of view, control is an illusion, and through the work, I exercise the acceptance of what everyday and discarded materials reveal, from accidents to new processes.

The vital materiality of quotidian objects is my starting point and leads me to a reevaluation of the dichotomy between life/inanimate, human/nature. I believe that a shift in hierarchy can result in a greener approach to self, culture and nature.

In the emergence of the unconscious, I am interested in the appearance of primal forms, remnants of timeless myths and ceremonial objects, and in this sense I refer to Joseph Beuys' shamanic practice: by limiting the presence of consciousness and the censoring ego in the work, I hope to channel an essential poetry.

My work is made of impurity, of error, of failure, of frustration, of insubordination, of excessiveness and of organic accumulation.

Residencies
2019 . Monson Arts, Maine
. Nectar, Spain, in collaboration with Fundación Ideograma and Koyac
2017 . CAMAC Centre d'Art Marnay-sur-Seine, France
. Hannacc creative center, Spain
. Residência W, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
. MassMoCA, North Adams, MA
2016
. Festival Volante, coletivo Paraísos Intimos - Rumos Itau cultural, Campinas, SP, Brazil
. Paul Artspace, Saint Louis, MO
. CAMAC Centre d'Art Marnay-sur-Seine, France
2015
. Pickwick Independent Press Keyholder Residency, Portland ME
. Elefante Centro Cultural, a two months residency in Brasília, June/July, Brazil
2014
. NARS Foundation six months residency July/December 2014, funded through a crowdfunding campaign on Catarse
. Villa Ruffieux Residency Program Grant, Sierre, Switzerland - January/March 2014
2010 School of Visual Arts Summer Residency, Printmaking and Artist Books, New York

Visiting artist
2015
. Tyler School of Art, Printmaking department, Philadelphia
. Maine College of Art, Printmaking majors workshop, Portland

Selected exhibitions
2019 . A tale of headless creatures (pop-up solo), Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
. 44o Salão de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
. Mantos cortantes para xamãs desesperados (solo), Galeria Andrea Rehder, Brazil
. Mantos cortantes para xamãs desesperados, Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
. 7o Arte Londrina (duo coletivo Eclusa), Brazil
. Vibrant Matter, Fundación Ideograma, Barcelona, Espanha
. Galeria de Arte e pesquisa (UFES), Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil
2018 . Paul Artspace 5 year Celebration, Gallery 210, Saint Louis
. 50o Salão Curitibano, Brazil
. 25o Salão de Praia Grande, Brazil
.15o Salão de Ubatuba, Brazil
. Mirabilis Apotheca (solo), Aura Arte Contemporânea, Brazil
. Pequenos altares para tesouros anódinos (solo), Museu de Arte de Blumenau, Brazil
. Fundação BADESC ( Eclusa) (solo as a collaborative duo), Brazil
2017
. 24o Salão de Praia Grande, Brazil
. Pela Estrada e Afora, 5 Arte Londrina interview | catalog, Brazil
. Acumuladores, Casa Nubam, São Paulo, Brazil
. Carne Levare, Casa Nubam, São Paulo, Brazil
2016
. Paul Artspace Fall Review at Sculptureworks Ferguson
. Bienal das Artes DF, Brasília, Brazil
. 48º SAC Piracicaba, Brazil
2015
. Berenice's Garden, solo show, Brooklyn New York
. Elefante Centro Cultural, a two-person show by invitation from the Belgium Embassy in Brasília, June/July, Brazil
. Entre o Brilho da Pele e o Esforço do Amor, a two-person exhibition at Galeria Gravura Brasileira, São Paulo, Brazil
2014
. Open Gate Project: Part 3, 101 Hall Street, NYC
. Evanescence, Gowanus Loft, solo show and 10 day residency, NYC
. Layers of response, NARS Residency artists group exhibition, NARS Foundation, NYC
. Curaticism, spoken words exhibition, NARS Foundation
. Interference, a two-person show at the Alumni Room Gallery, Tuohy Hall, Saint Joseph's College, NYC, curated by Ramona Candy
. Drawing Democracies, Steuben Gallery at the Pratt Institute, NYC, group exhibition organized by the Pratt Drawing Club
. Brazilian Consulate in New York, group exhibition
. Maxxx Project Space, a month long, work-in-progress, open doors installation, solo exhibition, Switzerland
2013
. MFA Thesis Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, Maine
http://index.meca.edu/mfa2013/
2012
. Annual exhibition program 2012, solo exhibition, Centro Cultural São Paulo
. SP Estampa, Galeria Gravura Brasileira, Brazil
2011
. MFA Retrospective, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
2010
. Open studios, summer residency, School of Visual Arts, New York
2009
. Amazon suite, solo exhibition, A Hebraica Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
. Impulso, Emma Thomas Gallery, São Paulo
2007
. Amazon suite, solo exhibition, Brazilian Embassy in Brussels
2006
. MARP (Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto) - 2006 Annual Exhibit Program, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

Academic background
2013 Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, revalidated by the University of São Paulo, Brazil
1999 Bachelor's degree in Architecture and Urbanism at USP, University of São Paulo, Brazil

Publications and awards
2014
. ovitro.com.br interview by Priscilla Nasrallah
2013
. Blurring boundaries - a process of self-awareness (Lulu Books)
. Vermont Studio Center Honorable Mention Artist, Robert Sterling Clark Fellowship
. Article: printeresting.org
2011-2013
. Presidential Scholarship at the Maine College of Art

Works in collections
. Villa Ruffieux, Switzerland
. Atelier Multiples-Éditions de l'école Cantonale d'Art du Valais, Switzerland
. Hebraica São Paulo, Brazil
. University of Houston Library ( collective artist book under 'Paraísos íntimos')

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How through this cacophony, a cacophony of excess and uncertainty and indecision, we invite the viewer to find the possible sense. How through this cacophony, a cacophony of excess and uncertainty and indecision, we invite the viewer to sit with us...

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The two following sentences where key, turning points for my project’s identity. Like I wrote before, the hair grid I’m building is the symbol of a somehow uncertain and down moment of my life. It mixes fragility with feminine, with mess - the hair strands are all out of a proportion for the grid creation and just like Hatoum’s Hair Grid, the only pattern is the full work itself. I saw this specific work only after I began making mine, and I’m surprised to see how they both relate in some topics of self identity and personal topics, besides of course the aesthetics.

I made half of my grid by this point (21.02) and it looks just like it is described on the last sentence: gappy, open and not decorative. I can see my perspective so much through Mona Hatoum’s grid that I can almost make the comments about her work (from this link) the same as mine, except from her ethnic and cultural background. Unlike her, I am describing this sculpture more towards a past mental state than (sometimes) geographical as she did.
I can even add some sort of emancipation from my own appearance and vanity in a way to point out her use of the female realm for hair. I used to have long hair for over a decade, and deciding to cut it myself right on my birthday week (at the time, turning 18) was very symbolic. I felt like so much was holding me back at the time, just like the hair kept growing so long, downwards. Hair emerges from the follicular roots, but during that period I felt like I was growing roots from the outside, unknowing my own.

‘’In Hatoum’s work, hair is a human product, in the way that wool is the product of sheep, or silk the product of the pupating Bombyx mori moth. It is material evidence of the self: in its shed form it announces the existence of its generating body. Uprooted, nomadic, the margins of the physical self become the borders of what is experienced as home. (…)

Hatoum explicitly addresses embroidery and weaving as activities of the female realm. The panels of embroidery suspended in Twelve Windows (2012-23) were created by Palestinian women living in refugee camps in Lebanon: each represents a distinct typology and tradition, a history of pattern, colour and dexterity passed down, mother to daughter, over generations. In her woven works, too, Hatoum seems to treat hair as a specifically feminine material.’’

‘’(…)

Much rougher, formally, are Hatoum’s woven Hair Grid (2001–) works made on small handheld looms of the type used by hobbyists or schoolchildren. Unlike the decorative, tightly knotted squares of Twelve Windows, these weavings are gappy and open. There is no pattern but the grid itself: a form seen by earlier generations of artists as the ultimate expression of non-objective art, here transformed into something personal, expressive and rich with association.

Hatoum’s Hair Grids appear to be a set of works made on the move, swiftly – if dextrously – formed with simple tools (hands, the loom) from available material (hair). They have a fragile, ephemeral quality. A faint breath of wind might carry them off. They’re vulnerable to being overlooked or thrown out.’’
text by Hedith Judah.

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Interweaving strands, and the artist's work

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Alyson Pou was one of the first artists I found that has a series of works with hair. I was very amazed by the beauty of her arrangements, looking almost like decorative occultist pieces, revealing somewhat esoteric and naturalistic hints.

Probably because she was the first big reference I found for this project, in the beginning of my action plan (after really deciding to work with hair) I decided to use her hair works as the main inspiration and maybe create my own version of it. Although it relates a lot to my concept it involves this matter as something mainly ‘witchy’, which is not my intention in the first place and maybe it develops to far away from a screen idea. I even made a sketch planning a very similar work - specially the image shown on this quoted link - but after realising she uses way much and voluptuous hair, mine wouldn’t look appealing for this use. Since my hair is very thin, it would only look like a miniature of her works. And furthermore, I think this ‘first actual idea plan’ got me too excited instead of realistic for this project.

I still quote her as a big influence, even though my hair net is not visually close to Pou’s. This artist was my starting point, the place where I actually got excited on this work and with this material.

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I appreciate the simplicity of Gomes’ work, as well as the colour palette. The egg element, a symbol of creation, infinite (round shape) and fertility, gives a strong meaning - or at least presence - to the remaining two rigid wood plates that contain it.* I like the relationship of space between the materials and their positions, it can imply some order of censure and even silence. I relate to this meanings, as I’m interpreting like so, because my hair being a material reminds me of a very intimate part of myself. I believe my hair gives me strength and since young age I am very careful with it - taking care of it is a wellness ritual and a sense of self appreciation.

(*- it’s actually a ball but I prefer to see it with the meaning of an egg.)

Although when I cut it (2018, two palms or 1 and a half of it), I was in a more contained and insincere moment in my life, when things like taking care of my own self weren’t so meaningful to me. I was suffering depression, taking pills and drinking a lot most of the times I went out. I started losing things (I lost my cellphone 2 times that year) and I didn’t knew where I wanted to go neither saw myself somewhere in the future.

It all started when I returned to Brasil in the beginning of that same year after living in Australia for 6 months. It was a common sense that these ‘bads’ would happen since I was coming back to a point of my life that I wasn’t missing. I cut my hair before living abroad, and since then (end of 2018) I left it growing. It started to collect all those feelings, those dark roots that I didn’t knew where they would take me. Anyways, I cut my hair in October all of a sudden at my bathroom some days after my birthday. It was in a very personal and symbolic view, a place to regrow and restart physically and emotionally.

I want to use my (old) hair to represent the depression, the rotten egg I was carrying. But also as a part I detached from myself. Deciding to make and study Arts was a huge step at that moment for me, and to represent it in an artwork would be very special for my path. The hair and the egg are elements that reveal growth, and in this case they reveal not only that but a discard as well.

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Weingarten Art Group | Art Consultants and Advisors

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Who: Fernanda Gomes is a Brazilian artist born in Rio de Janeiro where she lives and works. She has been featured at Pavilhão Branco Museu da Cidade in Lisbon, Portugal, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Oficina para Proyectos de Arte A.C. in Guadalajara, Mexico, and at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, as well as in many other galleries and museums spanning the globe.

What she is known for: Fernanda Gomes creates art with all kinds of leftover materials including everyday objects, old furniture, glasses, mirrors, magnets, various types of string, hair, cigarette ends, coins and newspaper.

About her creative process, Gomes reveals in an email interview for BOMB - Artists in Conversation that she tries "often to blank my mind, and then move, randomly, look and wait, just do something vague and unimportant, keep on moving, looking, moving, not for any result, simply playing with things."

What's being said about her: In an article in Flash Art Magazine, reporter Laura Mclean-Ferris writes about Fernanda Gomes:

We notice a space most fully when we first walk into it: the crack in the wall, the particular light, the colors of the floor, the position of the building in relation to its environs. Our attention is focused in these early minutes in a space, and yet thee ore time we spend there, the less we tend to notice.

Gomes' work gifts back to us this early attractiveness that has slipped away. With such interventions, delicately based on lines and geometric shapes, the form that comes quickly to mind is punctuation. Gomes' sculptures provide a way of seeing and experiencing space that facilitates pauses for breath, breaks, annotations, pointers and emphases.

Photo courtesy of Alison Jacques Gallery. Untitled, 2013. Wood, ball, nails Overall dimensions: 14 x 28.3 x 13.5 cm / 5 1/2 x 11 1/8 x 5 1/4 inches. Each wooden panel: 28.3 x 13.5 x 0.5 cm / 11 1/8 x 5 1/4 x 1/4 inches.
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Works of Fernanda Gomes are included in the exhibition Obras at Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin, Texas. The exhibition, curated by firm principal Lea Weingarten, features sculptures and installations by nine contemporary Brazilian artists. On view from Jan. 23 through March. 26.

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Fernanda Gomes: Everyday objects and more turned into art

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Who: Fernanda Gomes is a Brazilian artist born in Rio de Janeiro where she lives and works. She has been featured at Pavilhão Branco Museu da Cidade in Lisbon, Portugal, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Oficina para Proyectos de Arte A.C.

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Firstly knowing about this artist when visiting Inhotim, Tunga produced very big and marvellous sculptures. Incorporating cristals, metals as enormous pieces of hair (copper strings), golden leaves, rocks etc he creates a dreamy, magical like environment.

After remembering the hair material I kept from 2018 (when I chopped my hair at home) with quite big leght, I am intentioned to use it as a sculpture material for the exhibition show. The elements Tunga uses changing the atmosphere of a whole room captivated me a lot, and after unsuccessfully being able to develop the themes I wanted to work for the last weeks, I will focus on this aesthetic and material now. Lezart 1, 1989, is one of plenty works that he uses copper and metal strands as hair, rock plaques and other surfaces that play and adorn it. I like the surface of rocky floors that make the hair emerge from within, almost as a supernatural being.

Materials - Iron, copper, magnets, and embroidered silk

‘’The contemporary artist Tunga makes enigmatic sculpture and installations that combine traditions of Brazilian Constructivism and Surrealism to create a unique visual language. Lezart is a highly complex installation that is constructed of elemental substances such as copper, iron, and magnets. Its forms—combs, lizards, strands of hair—bear metaphoric and narrative links rooted in fictional writings by the artist. This piece is strongly related to a recurring text and performance involving the tale of Siamese twins, joined by the hair, who are sacrificed at puberty. Their salvaged scalp is passed on to a woman who extracts blond hairs from it to embroider an image from her dreams. As she does this, the threads turn to gold. The title of the piece, Lezart, refers directly to the cast-metal lizards that are found throughout the work and that continue the Siamese twin motif through a hybrid creature whose body ends in two heads or two tails. Tunga’s compelling vision, as it plays out in sculpture, installation, text, and performance, relies on age-old symbols, evocations of childhood fairy tales, and alchemical transformation that engage the viewer in the seductive materiality of the artist's sculpture and the myth surrounding its creation.’’
source -
https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/95002/lezart-i?ctx=8d11f555d9863956dee1b8f5d336f6ddc74e3b15&idx=1

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Achte Sinfonie von Gustav Mahler,

1960

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/6357

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This poster was produced on the occasion of the exhibition Zoe Leonard: Survey at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, 2018.

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Poster from the exhibition ‘’The Family of Man’’, exhibited in Kunstgewerbe museum, Zurich.
https://postermuseum.com/products/the-family-of-man

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'' This ambitious exhibition, which brought together hundreds of images by photographers working around the world, was a forthright declaration of global solidarity in the decade following World War II. Organized by noted photographer and director of MoMA’s Department of Photography Edward Steichen, the exhibition took the form of a photo essay celebrating the universal aspects of the human experience. Steichen had invited photographers to submit photographs for consideration, explaining that his aim was to capture “the gamut of life from birth to death”—a task for which, he argued, photography was uniquely suited. The exhibition toured the world for eight years, attracting more than 9 million visitors. ''
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2429?

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The asymmetric and distorted (yet geometrical) shaped of this edited photography is what captures my attention in this work. I want to create a poster with more imagery than typographic information, so a photography of drawing or collage as the main element like this would be a good approach. Peter Lindbergh is a fashion photographer and film director from Germany, working for Vogue, Stern Magazine and others. I don~t necessarily want to use a person for our exhibition’s invitation, but the technique of cutting and reshaping the image.

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This is a poster design for the jazz musician’s concert Charles Mingus. I like the technically unfinished, open line drawing that opens field for imagining the other, maybe remaining, lines or elements. I like this style and it would be possible to make by hand, using chalk. It is also a good approach for our exhibition that gets in the field of contemporary art, an area that can be very open and introspective for a viewer - just like the drawing aesthetic.
Unfortunately I couldn't find the artist who made this, it is somehow a vintage poster without credits on the platforms I could find it.

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I feel intrigued by this horizontal poster, it’s a good strategy for the minimal design and illustration, coloured elements since they aren’t so ‘’catchy’’ visually. It’s a subtle change but unusual, so the format is what pleases me here.

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Sometimes Always is a designer’s group quoted on a critique session for producing our exhibition’s poster. I like their colourful aesthetic and mostly bright palette. This poster is from an electronic music festival in Bahia, where the graphic elements represent both an event and the location - a bright orange color, as a beach reference and the dancing lady as it stands for a festival; raving  mood. This mixture of elements suited the palette very well, maintaining context and visual identity as well. I really enjoy this work and it’s very edgy, outgoing and transmits the same feelings that the promoted event would. I appreciate how every element connects.

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“bandejão”, metal.

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Cleaning mops (esfregão)

He created a beautiful rug like piece with some blue dye that initially was a bunch of cleaning instruments. he attached each in a patterned reposition with knots and sewing.

As he states and advices; You have to listen to the object. You might start with an idea but then you need to feel what the object tries to tell you. His process can relate to the making of a play, and how his objects can contribute to the “stagium” space.

Cunha sees that the background of the object is part of the concept, like the work and labour behind the bandejas or mops.

I can relate his decision of objects to my work’s intention, while in a very subtle way there is a background of mass work and industry. Also, I couldn’t notice in the first place which objects were used and only when he talked about each piece I got surprised with their “ids”.

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Big Iron Piece

completely found on a truck industry, where the cutouts transformed into truck pieces.

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Portal: da Cunha’s show @ Galeria Luisa Strina

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Portal: da Cunha’s show @ Galeria Luisa Strina

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Strina is the oldest contemporary art gallery in Brasil and probably the most important in Latin America.

Portal (Roseta)

The big green fabric screen is part of a parachute. Including the circle, that was already there and he just cut the excess of fabric to stretch the piece on a frame. Mostly, he only changes one thing using this as a little shift from one view to another, such as the parachute positioned into a new perspective as a flat surface.

His occupation through a gallery space suggest levels and separations, establishing grounds for one element to the other - he tried to balance the installation space into individual sculptures with also independency from each piece (5 sculptures in the space, but with similarities in between).

He states that he doesn’t produces installations but sculptures, which can be put in different places, exist in different situations and not necessarily site specific like an installation would be.

He intentionally incorporates design and architecture elements into the sculptures.

image source: Cunha’s instagram @casadacunha

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He studied London for his masters and still works there a lot. Graduated in FAAP as well but after the MA he started to work internationally and with more consistency. Shows happen in Europe and America, with a current big permanent installation for the london underground, where they comissioned him for a very large scale work.  He enjoys using his practice into different things, through shows and outside spaces with public sculptures - which is something quite new in his career (started 6y ago).

Industrialized materials are found and collected, rarely changing or adjusting them.

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Alexandre da Cunha has put together a very solid body of work for his first solo exhibit in New York City. His sculptures have been installed with tact at CRG Gallery in Chelsea.

Alexandre da Cunha, Kentucky Pied de Poule, installation view, 2012.

The freestanding and sculptural wall pieces have been primarily constructed from commonplace manufactured objects like beach towels, ironing boards and mop heads. These materials have been selected as components that adhere to a strict formal aesthetic while behaving as concepts that signify social misconceptions. As a Brazilian living in London, Alexandre da Cunha understands that people and places do not adhere to the shortcuts of stereotype.

Alexandre da Cunha, Felt (detail), compressed felt, felt hat, brass fittings, 2012.

Few elements combine to make these new objects but the complexity of the experience is not diminished. Decisions are not simply made in this world. Each concern is met well and imbued with a rigorous weaving of backstory. The hat on the beach is a nipple and it is also felt on the wall.

Alexandre da Cunha, Kentucky Pied de Poule II, mop heads, dye, fittings, 2012.

The multiple meanings to this work are clearly marked by the title of the show. The formal explanation is that "Kentucky" is the company that produces the mop heads, and "Pied de Poule" is French for the black and white Houndstooth pattern. An alternate translation of "Pied de Poule" is foot of the hen. Dependent on the cultural leaning of the viewer and with a slight play on words, one could possibly presume that the title of the show refers to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Of course, this might be another example of just how easy it can be to make the wrong assumption.

Alexandre da Cunha
Kentucky Pied de Poule
23 February - 24 March 2012
CRG Gallery
NYC

Images courtesy of CRG Gallery.

About Scott Lickstein, Look Into My Owl

Scott Lickstein is a visual artist and was the founder / primary writer for the art news source, LookIntoMyOwl.com until January 2013 when it merged with NOWhere Limited's Magazine.

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View all posts by Scott Lickstein, Look Into My Owl →

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Alexandre Da Cunha - Kentucky Pied De Poule

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Alexandre da Cunha has put together a very solid body of work for his first solo exhibit in New York City. His sculptures have been installed with tact at CRG Gallery in Chelsea. Alexandre da Cunha, Kentucky Pied de Poule, installation view, 2012.

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For the Curdistan room, a map of Europe and part of Medium Orient was painted on a wall. Some towns of places Meiselas collected testimonies of curd families and immigration stories were hanged over a nail that corresponded to the city it happened.
This one of the small books hanged, containing a real story from a curd man that migrated to the Netherlands.

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“I don’t want the photographs to be about me. I want them to be means by which people can connect to other worlds. (…) Bring people into more thoughtful exchanges.” 

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“I don’t want the photographs to be about me. I want them to be means by which people can connect to other worlds. (…) Bring people into more thoughtful exchanges.” 

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'Mediações', da fotógrafa Susan Meiselas, reúne cerca de 180 registros | Exposição

E a fotógrafa documental norte-americana Susan Meiselas está com uma exposição no Instituto Moreira Salles. A mostra 'Mediações' reúne obras da década de 1970 até os dias de hoje. São 180 registros feitos a partir de cenas cotidianas e durante conflitos na América Central e zonas de guerra. Susan também fez uma série que revela os bastidores da vida de strippers nos Estados Unidos. Inscreva-se no canal e clique no sininho para ser notificado das novidades! Siga o Metrópolis: - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/metrocultura - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metropolisprograma - Site: http://tvcultura.com.br/programas/metropolis

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'Mediações', da fotógrafa Susan Meiselas, reúne cerca de 180 registros | Exposição

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E a fotógrafa documental norte-americana Susan Meiselas está com uma exposição no Instituto Moreira Salles. A mostra 'Mediações' reúne obras da década de 1970 até os dias de hoje. São 180 registros feitos a partir de cenas cotidianas e durante conflitos na América Central e zonas de guerra.

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Nicarágua, El Salvador, Curdistan - mediações

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Nicarágua, El Salvador, Curdistan - mediações

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After this section, there is the Nicaragua and El Salvador (78-79; 79-83. Respectively.). S.M. followed historical and geographic questions, movements - just like the following one with the Curd folk. This time the exhibition takes a deep turn, and the pictures felt like punches in the stomach to me. I couldn’t stay there for too long because of the dense history behind it and very brutal images of deceased people’s bodies and civil, including children, hurt.

I guess this prepared me, in a very basic way, to pay more attention to the next room - ‘Fotografando no Curdistão” (1991-92) after the end of Golf’s War/Guerra do Golfo. Probably because just like her, it was a question that I 'heard of’ and kinda know about it as a war between human right and refugees on medium orient. She went there to discover why people were migrating from Curdistan to Iran or Turkey, so the shots felt more didactic and journalistic - she was also trying to understand this context, and it is noticeable how she deals with photography in a delicate way this time. She went through very rustic villages where fully clothed women took care of a community that barely had water, collected testimonies of curds from their migration stories and even went through found ancient grave sites.

“As pessoas já tinham desenterrado ossos para tentar localizar seus entes queridos assim que tinha acabado a ressureição contra as forcas de Saddam (Hussein).”

She also did an amazing collecting work by searching for photographs of curds and families, looking for historical matter instead of producing it:

“Comecei a notar as pessoas se agarrando a fotografias dos desaparecidos. Elas vestiam as fotografias, o que para mim era um eco da praça de Maio na Argentina, onde as mulheres erguiam as fotos dos desaparecidos em público.”

*all quotes are Meiselas’ comments from this exhibition, compilated in journal sheets that I got on IMS.

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The next situation begins in a stripper itinerary show from USA (1972-75), ‘Strippers de Festivais'. Meiselas was traveling around in summer with her partner in New England when they saw these tours. She started to get curious about it because for the time, it was a common debate for feminists if women should use their bodies as objects to attract men, and then, she saw this group of women exploring their sexuality in such an open way.

The shots where taken during shows (with men glances deeply excited towards such bodies) and also on backstage or camarim. She started little by little to gain their confidence until she got invited to accompany those tours, always with invitations of some performers. The work took 3 summers and the guy managers constantly felt worried about her presence, arguing that she could document these to betray their work or denounce.

To me, it felt like a relation towards the girls from prince street - maybe in a precocious way. From Italian girls to strippers, I felt this weird yet so humane connection between them and between my own self. I think its because of a gender question, so as sexuality, and feeling these two forms of intimacy with somehow the same subjects felt very relatable and empathic to me. Mostly, because of a small book presented there where Meiselas got a deployment from a stripper - something similar too people ignoring their real life as real women, instead seeing them only as toys and fun. From my memory: “people forget we are also humans. We have the need to eat. To fuck. To get depressed, sad or happy. We are woman and we have feelings.”.

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Mediações - Susan Meiselas Curated by Marta Gili, Pia Viewing and Carlos Guerra.

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Mediações - Susan Meiselas Curated by Marta Gili, Pia Viewing and Carlos Guerra.

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This thursday I went on Meiselas’ solo retrospective exhibition at IMS Paulista. With a huge archive of decades of artworks and explorations traveling around the globe, M. documents in a briefly resume, human interactions and reactions. Susan was born in 1948, Baltimore, US and worked for Magnum Photos agency.

Starting with works dated closely to the beginning of her career, there's ‘Girls from Prince Street’ (1976-78) selection of shots from her neighborhood in Little Italy, NY, were she used to walk through and began making connections towards the children there, that where curious about her camera. She has pictures of very sincere adolescent and children relationships on their daily life during the 70s, showing the development of a lot of the girls she followed. I loved this first room because of the way social interactions are shown in a very pure and childish way and since the start of this project, as she comments happening accidentally, everything is captured in a very spontaneous way yet documental. I felt very captivated by the way she shots their behavior so naturally that almost looks like they are acting for movie scenes.

“Chamo essa meninas de ‘meninas da rua Prince’ porque seus pais disseram que elas tinham que ficar na rua prince. (…) Eram meninas muito vigiadas, pois todo mundo na comunidade se conhecia. A curiosidade delas a respeito de mim foi o que me levou a percebe-las, de certa forma. (…) Talvez tenha me atraído a expressividade dessas garotas, que começavam a compreender seus corpos.

(…) Sim, começam a ser donas dos próprios corpos. Adoro as fotos nas quais estão posando. Não tanto para a camera, mas para elas mesmas e para as outras.”

“As fotos também transmitem uma mistura de tenacidade e vulnerabilidade em todas as garotas. Há uma sensação de perigo - pense nas ruas perigosas de NY na década de 70 -, mas também de possibilidade. São garotas duronas, mas também são apenas garotinhas vestindo tomara que caia."

The exhibition began in this “safe space” with images of funny girls chewing gum, wearing retro clothes and playing on the streets; to later present works that she is best known for, during tense situations on conflicts and civil wars.

*all quotes are Meiselas’ comments from this exhibition, compilated in journal sheets that I got on IMS.

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Images from street cameras and control over cities during decades.
Also from Who's in charge?exhibition.

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Harun Farocki: quem é responsável? (who's in charge?)

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Harun Farocki: quem é responsável? (who's in charge?)

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IMS SP - september 2019

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Harun Farocki: quem é responsável? | IMS Paulista

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With Indian background but born in Germany, Harun Farocki (1944-2014) explores the political science towards film with topics that reflect the control over image nowadays - from newspaper to security cameras in stores, prisons or public spaces as ‘not very transparent or clear borders/barriers’ that contain subliminal informations establishing a lot of data from our daily lives.

"As relações entre indústria cultural e violência aparecem também em Jogos sérios I-IV (2009-2010), que retrata o uso de videogames e animações computadorizadas no treinamento de soldados americanos para lutar nas guerras do Afeganistão e do Iraque. As seções de treinamento foram registradas pelo cineasta na Marine Corps Base 29 Palms, na Califórnia, em 2009. Esse trabalho também aborda a combinação entre computação gráfica e realidade virtual em programas utilizados pelas Forças Armadas americanas em sessões de terapia de veteranos de guerra com estresse pós-traumático. No trabalho, o artista analisa a violência que há por trás dessas imagens, além do processo de construção da memória da guerra.”

Quoted from link. El País, As images questionadoras de Harm Farucki, during exhibition at IMS Rio, RJ.
https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/03/12/cultura/1552400966_974298.html

"Ele sempre se interessou pelo surgimento de novas formas de trabalho, ou por questões como o desemprego ligado à industrialização. Este é um tema muito rico e importante para cada momento da história, de modo que faz muito sentido examiná-lo. (…) enquanto documentarista, muitas de suas obras documentais lidam com a questão trabalhista.”
Antje Ehmann, curator, Harun Farocki: quem é responsável? exhibition's video on IMS Paulista (linked below).

I feel intrigued by the subtle use of image Farocki uses, even though they can be very thoughtful and even historical or journalistic. I believe that by documenting issues as technological industries occupied by smaller labour (humane) force throughout decades and putting himself as an observer instead of actor (to film and select images) and later as activist (by divulging these as his artistic identity) is a clever decision. - F. doesn’t belong or wasn’t born in such social or political places, he comes from a successful family that assured good life conditions during his raise. With that, his documentary series are introspect and raw aesthetically, since he’s not in a place of speech or action where he could simply put his own assumptions on - just like my point of perspective towards such theme I am prompting to talk about. It is essential though that he puts himself in those situations - his works are not an ode or tribute to workers or social situations, like a flag-shipped work where he doesn’t come from.

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http://bienalsescvideobrasil.org.br/artista/jonathas-de-andrade

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Work by Jonathas de Andrade on Istambul. Andrade took very unfancy or prepared portraits of common man on the streets of Turkey that could look like jesus. He also asked people about where he could find them and how could they look like through their perspectives. The simplicity of this theme and the approach to the common sense, the opinions and the “routine” aspect of it is what fascinates me the most.
J. de A. was on the oriental side of the globe talking about a very “ocidentalized” figure that Jesus is - and how he is represented as a white man with straight hair and blue eyes on our country (Brasil). The accessibility and controversy behind this work is almost comic, and the public participation was presented even during the ehxibition: after seeing the portrait pictures of men, people could eat a date and vote on which “jesus” they would choose with its seed.
All opinions mattered and were listened during this work, and having this connection while talking about a topic that is known worldwide creates a very interesting community-sense and debate friendly place.

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Comunidades Imaginárias

Video matter of photography from american rubber tree sites.
Although I collected the journal from this piece with several informations about the raw force to rubber extraction, it doesn’t contain the artist(s) who made this. I enjoy this piece a lot because the environment of the room was a very calm and soothing place showing only nature images from the rubber trees, in deep contrast to what this work is actually like. The big human strength and tolerance it asks for is very abusing and made me think about slavery situations on those “jobs”, for instance during a trip I made to the Amazon in 2018. The life conditions of those workers are very rustic and humble, and it made me think about labour in a different way, bringing this quiet and peaceful environment into an imagination of suffer and poverty.

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"Down the Blue Mountain"  (installation, 2018)—Video projection onto miniature relief sculptures

"Down the Blue Mountain is a sequence of dream-like scenes with a bedroom, the house, the street, and at last, the town. All the scenes are intentionally blurred to leave room for imagination, so viewers can associate their own memories or dreams with the scenes and create their own narratives. The series is shot in San Francisco, where the softness and ever-changing quality of the light and fog engender a contemplative mood. Instead of people, light and space become main characters that tell the story. The title “Down the Blue Mountain” is a phrase from an ancient Chinese poet Li Bai in which he expressed his sentiments for home and romanticized the distant landscape during a long journey.

The videos are projected onto their corresponding miniature wood relief sculptures. As the light changes or fog passes in the video, the relief sculpture and video switch roles of foreground and background."
quoted from Zhou's official website:  http://yugezhou.com/installation#/down-the-blue-mountain/

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Four scenes from "Down the Blue Mountain" series

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http://yugezhou.com/
Please visit https://vimeo.com/290858069 for the installation version of Down The Blue Mountain 
(Left to right, top to bottom)
The Bedroom; 6 min, 16 sec. Infinite loop
The House; 11 min, 29 sec. Infinite loop 
The Street; 8 min, 13 sec. Infinite loop
The Town; 8 min, 6 sec. Infinite loop

Production assistant: Xinyi Zhu

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"Five Angels For the Millennium"
Long Beach, CA, 2001.

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MLF invited me to document their latest installation presented at STRP festival in Eindhoven: a magical laser forest.
March 2013

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Kinetic Light Sculpture - Commissioned by Famous Grouse

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Director: Marshmallow Laser Feast
Production Company: PRETTYBIRD
Producer: Margo Mars
Sculpture Design: Marshmallow Laser Feast & Studio Roso
Kinetic Design: Ruairi Glynn

Agency: AMV BBDO

Client: The Famous Grouse

Final sculpture DOP: Brett Turnbull
Additional footage: Sandra Ciampone
Editor: Sandra Ciampone
Music: Dave Cooke

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Although I'm not planning yet a concept for this task I felt very impacted by some of Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF)’s works, specially the two interactive arts “Kinetic Light Sculpture” and “Forest”.

All of the group’s projects are very big and technological but what fascinates the most is the interaction with the public, during the production or as part of the outcome in general. In the case of the Kinetic Light, a forum was firstly develop for people all around the world to answer what would they like to become famous for. After gathering several of the most unique responses, the sculpture’s format was designed through the study of brewery destination processes - by analyzing the water movement through barrels and machines. The outcome was presented with copper circular bands engraved with each answer and disposed in a tubular, portal like area with different circle sizes also with a central light that reflected the comments on the whole ambient/room of exhibition.

Every light present in the room is emerged from the words of several people around the world, that were asked under a common request and question that probably went through everyone’s minds at least once in a while during life. By collecting all of these “desires”, each person is anonymously represented and then possibly open to a certain level of empathy and relation towards the public. A piece that gathers so many information, ends up sharing it all in a same space that gives them all a same value. Not the value of fame itself, since the question is hypothetic. But a sense of relationship is definitely created by the ones who participated and the ones who watch- common people, maybe with common desires that show answers like "wanting to be remembered for creating a certain change in the world” provoke me feelings of community as one, not because of specific answers but for being all around the world. I loved the humanity sense of this work and it’s touching in a melancholic (since people who see or answer are not famous - but that’s not the point), yet warming way.

The “Forest" work is again very interactive, with a range of tall light “sabers” that get illuminated when hit. Looking from our own human height, the act to activate the work almost seems aggressive, but when combined with simultaneous repetitions creates a very delicate, even “fairy"atmosphere when looking up towards the tall light spots. It mixes human interactions in a discordant way when thought rationally, but as a whole represents many interactions that keep the Forest alive and musical. It is very warming and magical, specially when thinking through a child’s perspective (the Vimeo video linked shows the interactions between a big group of kids wearing boxing gloves to hit the light sabers and give life to the ehxibition).

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Marshmallow Laser Feast – British Council. 

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Marshmallow Laser Feast – British Council. 

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" (Para o presidente da FIESP e do SESI-SP, Paulo Skaf, “só se constrói uma sociedade independente e democrática promovendo o acesso de todos ao que de fato faz a diferença: o conhecimento. Por isso, ao investir em diferentes formas de arte e cultura, o SESI-SP reforça a convicção de que o conhecimento pode vir de pequenos detalhes, em alguns ‘vestígios’, que só o olhar atento do artista é capaz de revelar”.) "

Adriana Balsanelli, 2016

http://adrianabalsanelli.com.br/marshmallow-laser-feast-british-council

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Goldsmith is a poet that reads several news or unauthoral texts with a ‘poetical / aesthetic voice’, literally as an ordinary poet. He does not believe in copyright and his work behaves in such way, using technology as the main source. This video specifically starts in a public location, with a (somehow) public text, a newspaper that is grabbed from a small store and is red by K.G. in the streets. In this case, he reads about Obama’s traffic reports.

"“I am in love with creativity, I just don’t like what it has become”, says Goldsmith. This is why he is throwing plagiarism, boredom and uncreative writing back at creativity, with the hope of reviving it: “I am obliged as a poet to be as experimental as possible, because I have nothing to gain by playing it safe.” This uncreative approach to poetry has led Goldsmith as far as to the White House, where he read plagiarized traffic reports to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, who was clearly quite entertained.

" “I am in love with creativity, I just don’t like what it has become”, says Goldsmith. This is why he is throwing plagiarism, boredom and uncreative writing back at creativity, with the hope of reviving it: “I am obliged as a poet to be as experimental as possible, because I have nothing to gain by playing it safe.” This uncreative approach to poetry has led Goldsmith as far as to the White House, where he read plagiarized traffic reports to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, who was clearly quite entertained. (…) " - Louisiana Channel, “Kenneth Goldsmith Assume no Readership” (@ https://channel.louisiana.dk/video/kenneth-goldsmith-assume-no-readership )

Through my point of view Goldsmith explores what is beyond authoral, even though he is borrowing texts still remaining a poet. The performance of reading pieces from someone/somewhere else deals with his choice and comprehension of “creativity” as something that isn't valued as divine or extremely genius. I enjoy his approach that goes the other way around, corrupting this quite capitalistic concern of art or simply creativity itself as something extraordinary, while we are constantly bombarded by information of all type daily.

We got used to this technological and media-ful era and his behavior mimics this relationship between public and ‘show’, seeing show as the complete ordinary. Breaking this ground is somewhat ironic and ‘smart-mouthed’, which makes it exciting to me. Creating another pole of poetry by the way he works with information is in practice basic, but opens up further fields of thought that wouldn’t be accessed without his performance of minimally reading those news.

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aerial view of Middle Eastern mountains - around Iran

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Faroe Island's small gate and pathway

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Dubai's spacial architecture

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Iranian mountains

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Australia's Pink Lake

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Australia's Outback desert

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waterfall at Faroe Islands

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Imagery captured from natural environments only, collected from different continents.

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As this link shows, there are series of relaxing spa treatments nowadays using wine and grapes as a natural antioxidant. Although these sources can be actually good for health and soothing, I linked this article’s informations as an opposition to my performance’s criticism where wine is used as a perverted symbol so as the alcoholic ‘bloody’-like beverage as abuse.

Making a bridge back to a century ago, where women that where “too angry, repulsive or unsatisfied with their home/daily life” where diagnosed with what was called “female hysteria”, described
( on https://www.huffpostbrasil.com/2013/11/21/female-hysteria_n_4298060.html?ri18n=true ) as:

“Hysteria was the first mental disorder attributed to women (and only women) -- a catch-all for symptoms including, but by no means limited to: nervousness, hallucinations, emotional outbursts and various urges of the sexual variety. (…)

Thomas Sydenham was an influential British physician who lived from the mid- to late-1600s, and clearly thought that crazy ladies were wandering around everywhere. According to Mother Jones, Sydenham once declared that female hysteria -- which he attributed to "irregular motions of the animal spirits," was the second most common malady of the time, just behind fevers. (…)

At various points in history, the massaging of a woman's pelvis (i.e., her genitals) was embraced by many a health expert as the cure for female hysteria, resulting in "hysterical paroxysm," or orgasm. Though the practice dates back to the renaissance, and even before, it became a money-maker for the medical establishment during the Victorian era. "By the early 19th century, physician-assisted paroxysm was firmly entrenched in Europe and the U.S. and proved a financial godsend for many doctors," Psychology Today explains.”

Summing up, this condition that is simply about female sexual behavior was seen as a disease, and it was also during the 19th century that vibrators where first created - but categorized as a an electromechanical medical instrument. By bringing back historical moments, we can create a path back to when women became submissive, silenced and objectified. I also relate the male abuse towards us as a point behind all of these topics, that can start with a more “digestive” subject when mentioning wine therapy (in the case of my performance’s background research) which is today seen as a universal way of relaxation. But to bring back gender-determined therapy techniques show a change of time, fortunately. Although, there is still a lot of roots behind a sexist behavior that ‘justifies’ male abuse as a form of relief to what was once “provoked against them”.

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This is not a tease: wine therapy is real and the best way to drink your cares away. More formally known as vinotherapy, grapes are nature's antioxidant. We've all heard the benefits of drinking wine (specifically red wine), but the magical power of grapes seems to offer some medicinal and cosmetic qualities, as well. Everything from grape scrubs to massages to bathing in Pinot Noir can be experienced at these five wine-derful locations.
Put down the glass guys, there's a new way to enjoy wine! Just kidding, we'd never make you do that. You can drink while having your treatment, it's all part of the experience. Our only question is, wine not?

Hotel Marqués de Riscal - Spain

This spa oozes relaxing vibes. The natural decor creates a soft ambience and a chance to really escape. Their treatments range from skin treatments to body wraps, all involving the grape. The vineyards will be in view while you indulge in Cabernet scrubs that exfoliate and nurture your skin or grape essence treatments for stimulation and rejuvenation. How about a rainforest shower or a hammam jacuzzi to end the perfect day? Followed by a glass of red, of course.

Kenwood Inn and Spa - California

It should come as no surprise that California offers wine therapy. What vino-inspired spa treatments can you get here, though? How about a detox and exfoliating Pinot Noir bath? Or perhaps a Chardonnay soak complete with crisp, citrus, and essential grape oils that relax the muscles. I'm officially thinking about pouring wine in my bathtub to experience this now since a visit to Sonoma isn't in the cards just yet...

Adler Spa Center & Beauty Hotel - Italy

Who's up for a new kind of fountain of youth? We all know that water is good for us, but how about a grape seed facial and scrub that promises anti-aging? Sign me up! Let's not forget you'll be surrounded by serene rolling hills dotted with vineyards, which I'm sure will also help take any stress off your shoulders.

Cavas Wine Lodge - Argentina

This hotel's sole commitment is to wine; the first of its kind in South America, and maybe even the world. All the food is local and organic and paired with award-winning wines while you gaze upon the lush vineyards that surround the base of the breathtaking Andes Mountains. After you've had a few glasses, the Vinotherapy Package is a must. Bonarda scrubs, Torrontes treatments to help dry the skin and become more plump, and a Malbec bath are all included.

Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte - France

Vinotherapy was born in Bordeaux, and Chateau Smith was ground zero. Besides tours of the impressive vineyards and wine tasting in one of the most superb wine regions on earth, the treatments are unprecedented. Using mineral-rich water that's extracted from the ground nearby, they create wine spas that strengthen blood vessels, reverse aging, and help with circulation.

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Wine Therapy: Yes it's Real and Obviously You Need It

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This is not a tease: wine therapy is real and the best way to drink your cares away. More formally known as vinotherapy​, grapes are nature's antioxidant. We've all heard the benefits of drinking wine (specifically red wine), but the magical power of grades seems to offer some medicinal and cosme...

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Tracey Emin: Why I Never Became a Dancer, 1995

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This is "Tracey Emin: Why I Never Became a Dancer, 1995" by MOCA North Miami on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Artwork description & Analysis: This video features scenes from Margate, Emin's hometown, including the beach, the games arcade and the "golden mile" which is an area with casinos and bars lit with neon signs. Emin narrates a story from her early teens, explaining what her life was like in Margate and how she began having sex with older men between the ages of 13 and 15. After she turned 15, she says, she wasn't interested in sex any more, and turned to dancing instead. When she was dancing in a competition, a group of men whom she'd slept with began shouting "slag" in the middle of her routine, breaking her concentration and causing her to lose focus and in turn lose the competition. The film ends with the older Emin dancing in an unfurnished room with a smile on her face as a rejection of the group of men from her past. Through this personal experience, Emin explores the double standards men often hold for women; they're willing to sleep with them, but equally willing to call them a "slag" for doing so. Dance critic Sarah Crompton describes the film in the following way: "It simultaneously breaks my heart and makes me want to cheer every time I see it because in it Emin transmutes the details of her life into an experience that anyone who has ever been hurt - and recovered - can identify with." The piece is confessional and cathartic for the artist personally too. The images of her hometown are filmed in a different style, which evoke nostalgia and a touch of romance through faded colors and the amateurish handling of the camera. The style of the cinematography changes and lively disco music picks up where the narrative left off. The cut to Emin dancing in a room alone offers a reprieve to an otherwise unfortunate autobiographical story.

Super 8 film - Tate, London

quoted from "theartstory"link

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"I realized I was my work, I was the essence of my work - I always say that after I'm dead my work isn't going to be half as good."

Her work is often referred to as confessional, for she uses her own personal history as the subject for her artwork. She has used her own body as medium in self-portraits and performances. Her artworks enact self-mapping and self-commemorating through the possible healing and spiritual aspect of art.

The fame Emin received was more from press gossip than from critical debate for her artwork and her persona is her own brand of unapologetic artistic commodity that violated social norms (particularly British norms). Before reality television programming became as large of a phenomenon as it is today, Emin was elevated to celebrity status through the contested reception of her public appearances. Her brash unwelcomed commentary and defiant telling of a woman's autobiography fed on the public's love of voyeurist-like television sealed Emin's prominence in the contemporary art world.

She rejected the stereotype of the polite modest Englishwoman, and publicly aired her dirty laundry through her artwork and public appearances. Emin's artwork has a performative quality, and has a function other than mere self-expression in that her persona has been created for her by the public, and she has played the "bad girl" that the public has critically embraced. The societal response is part of her artwork; she encourages critique even if it comes in the form of gossip tabloids.

Although she rejects any notions of her work being for a feminist greater good, her courage to be vulnerable and honest through her artwork collapses the edge between life and art, and has brought attention to the discrepancies between men and women's ability to critically and publicly engage with topics such as alcoholism, gender roles, and, most controversially, sex.

Tracey Emin was born in Surrey, in England. She grew up in Margate, on the coast of Kent, with her twin brother Paul. She lived with her mother in a successful seaside hotel, where she claims she was treated "like a princess." Her Turkish father lived with them for half of the week, spending the other half with his wife and other children. After a few years, Emin's father left and took his money with him, leaving Emin's mother bankrupt.

Tracey Emin's childhood, life, career, and various anecdotes

Read Tracey Emin's Biography

And, the artists and movements that built upon Tracey Emin's art

Read Tracey Emin's Artistic Legacy

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"I realized I was my work, I was the essence of my work - I always say that after I'm dead my work isn't going to be half as good." Her work is often referred to as confessional, for she uses her own personal history as the subject for her artwork.

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Tracey Emin is a contemporary artists from the YBA generation of professionals (Young British Artists), working with different fields in sculpture, painting and conceptual, feminist and autobiographic/confessional performances and installations. Born during the 60s, she started working with the Arts field during the beginning of the 80s and still.

"She is best known for her deeply personal and confessional artwork that she promotes through her celebrity and use of the popular media. Personal traumatic events such as unreported rape, public humiliation, sexism, botched abortions, alcoholism, and promiscuity have been her topics. The quality of Emin's artwork is often contested, from the critique of expressionism, to the politics of female representation. However, it is this collapse of the identity of the artist and her work that begs for rigorous thought.

(…)

Although she rejects any notions of her work being for a feminist greater good, her courage to be vulnerable and honest through her artwork collapses the edge between life and art, and has brought attention to the discrepancies between men and women's ability to critically and publicly engage with topics such as alcoholism, gender roles, and, most controversially, sex.”
- excerts from link below

Using her body as a field for performance and self portraits, she uses what considerably can be seen as “vulgar” into artworks that can get a further recognition from the spiritual and healing towards art.

WORKS

"Everyone I Have Ever Slept With” 1995

This work is a small tent containing the names of everyone Emin has shared a bed with, not necessarily with the same meaning as the popular expression “slept with” (as relating sexually) someone. This discretion between what it seems to be and what actually is feels to me as a certain innocence trying to be recovered instead of explicit eroticism that calls attention. There is a thin difference from both, but considering the artist’s background experiences, it makes me somehow pitiful from all the fingers society points at us, women. Her gender is a clear role that confronts the hustle and gossip behind her career  and fame, but the works are hinted with details that speak further than that, which provokes a big sensibility and emotion.

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A Lakota-Sioux native-american tribe located in Dakota, US.

The Sioux Nation is a large group of Native American tribes that traditionally lived in the Great Plains. There are three major divisions of Sioux: Eastern Dakota, Western Dakota, and the Lakota. Many Sioux tribes were nomadic people who moved from place to place following bison (buffalo) herds.

Sioux native artworks include lots of beaded patterns, feathers, fringes and animal skin with ethnic patterns.
*image below - traditional Sioux vest.

“Dana Claxton’s work is aesthetically innovative, brilliantly written and expertly paced. The thrust of her practice is political, spiritual and social, making it an essential contribution not only to the field of media art, but generally, to a more honest sense of history.” – Jason St. Laurent, 2002

https://ahva.ubc.ca/persons/dana-claxton/

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The Mustang Suite (June 9 to July 31, 2008): vibrant portraits that merge western and indigenous aesthetics with a touch of irony. "Indigenous people have been structurally dehumanized in all facets of life in North America, whether it's through education, through the state, through the church," says Claxton. "In some ways, my work has attempted to show us as human beings."

Relating the essential and important role of horses for Lakota people that is seen as an honored friend or relative, not only as a mode of traditional transportation.

“In The Mustang Suite, she evokes imaginative impressions of horses dancing in a projected one-channel video, accompanied by a suite of five photographs on the theme of evolving Aboriginal identities using various metaphors for the horse.

he color red, important in Lakota culture, runs as a motif through images that borrow from notions of family portraiture. In Daddy’s Gotta New Ride, an Aboriginal man with a painted face stands in a business suit beside a red Mustang car. In Baby Girlz Gotta Mustang, twin girls in red dresses and mukluks trimmed with rabbit fur sit on red Mustang bicycles. ”

https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/dana-claxton%2C-%22the-mustang-suite%2C%22-june-9-to-july-31%2C-2008%2C-alternator-gallery-for-contemporary-art%2C-kelowna/

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Claxton's work first appeared to me while I was scrolling through my instagram. I was frustrated about the not very successful development of the Moon idea and its performance, but I already decided that my field would be to work with women. After I saw some of Leonor Fini on this instagram account, I scrolled through some older posts and saw "Headdress"by the Native American artist. I loved the beaded, richly cultural pieces and to know her background and the criticism behind her work was even stronger to notice.
The issues she deals with when putting a body dresses in black, entirely covered by this Native American art and accessories is actually close to the way I tried to relate the Moon and performer figure in attempt to show how futile, indecently appropriated it can be to try to pursue a belief and identity that isn’t really yours, but is “fashion” nowadays. Her further comments about Victoria Secret’s Show using such artifacts is even more contrasting, screaming for aesthetically value by adding “pretty things” in order to create a “pretty body” with objects that don’t really dialogue or enricher with any of both.

To pursue something that doesn’t belong to yourself, ignoring its actual meanings and importance to other identities is shallow - considering spirituality and culture, aspects that can be found as the North of my initial idea and her works.

Headdress, 2015:

A Victoria Secret model wears a fringed bikini and feathered headdress. (...) It's 2016, but headlines about cultural appropriation on the catwalk keep coming. A major topic of discussion and controversy, Claxton's Made to Be Ready addresses the issue — in one photo especially, called Headdress.

"You're not going to see any Indian wearing those things, but you see all those faux hippies at Coachella wearing them, right?" says Claxton.

"It's insulting. But I understand why. They're beautiful. They feel amazing on. They're comforting. They have manna. They're gorgeous. They're amazing head gear, but they mean something, especially to Plains Indian people. So coming from a culture that has been oppressed and structurally dehumanized, the things that are ours, we cherish them. Personally, I find it to be insensitive, and kind of silly, really. Maybe even stupid, because people don't know the history, still," she says.

In Headdress, Claxton uses her personal collection of jewellery and beads and strings them together to form a rainbow veil that adorns the face of the model. When she wears the same beads in her day-to-day life, albeit styled a little more conventionally, Claxton says she experiences something unusual. "It's interesting. Sometimes when you wear your beadwork, people will reach out and touch you," she says. "I've never reached out to touch someone's pearls or emeralds, but why [do] people think when we're adorned with our stuff they can reach out and touch us? It's an interesting phenomenon."

Very good article that has lots of talks and opinion from the artist and her artworks! Mini encyclopedia of her events and cultural background.
What I enjoy about this work is also the ready-made aesthetic behind it, as a small game of words playing with the title and what it suggests. The indigenous beadwork is criticized in a "ready made"theme, since it was never considered fine arts in a Occidental white supremacy, only receiving a label as "crafts".

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/dana-claxton-wants-to-change-the-way-you-think-about-indigenous-women-1.3403600

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"Her independent mind, incredible talent and unique personality have labelled her as one of the few internationally recognized female artists before the 1970’s." 

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"Her independent mind, incredible talent and unique personality have labelled her as one of the few internationally recognized female artists before the 1970’s." 

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L. Fini
https://baterbys.com/womens-history-month-artist-leonor-fini/