States of Play Part II: An Embodiment of Gesamtkunstwerk in Eritage
By: Bahia Kazemipour
We are all constant observers, attuned to the symphony of sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound. Our senses weave a tapestry of awareness as we navigate the spaces we enter and exit, making decisions shaped by the whispers of our surroundings. Eritage invites us into an intentionally crafted multisensory experience, drawing in the observer, the curious passerby, with a unique allure.
As we delve into the second phase of States of Play, we uncover how Eritage creates an immersive aesthetic experience. In the mid-19th century, the German composer Richard Wagner introduced the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, a "total work of art" or "synthesis of the arts." This vision aspired to blend various artistic disciplines, engaging multiple senses in harmony. Just as Wagner dreamed of uniting music, poetry, drama, and visual arts, Eritage seamlessly integrates diverse art forms to create a space that invites play and exploration.
Eritage’s States of Play Part II embodies the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, accompanied by eight international artists: Abel B Burger (France), Jamel Armand (Netherlands), Kylie Wentzel (South Africa), Mafia Tabak (Austria), Martin Daiber (Chile), Steven Smith (UK), Expanded Eye (UK), and David Shillinglaw (UK). Much like the multi-media style pursued by Dadaists such as Hugo Ball, States of Play Part II is a true Gesamtkunstwerk.
These artists use various mediums and materials, playing with textures, surfaces, scales, and aesthetics to create a cohesive and immersive experience. David Shillinglaw, for instance, stitches and paints found fabric on cotton canvas, creating his unique and specific micro-universe, where every ingredient has been placed relevantly. Similar fabric structures in Martin Daiber’s works integrate cubistic elements by blending acrylic, spray paint, and paper on canvas. Expanded Eye and Jamel Armand explore mixed-media collages, constructing figures that imitate human bodies. Meanwhile, Mafia Tabak works in an abstract, dreamy world, composed of ink, pencil, and charcoal. Stephen Smith uses acrylic, oil sticks, and collages on paper, whereas Abel B Burger employs graphite, colored pencils, and wax pencils on wood surfaces. By merging these diverse artistic methods, the States of Play Part II dissolves the boundaries between individual art forms, producing a powerful emotional impact on the audience. This collaborative dialogue among the artists fosters a state of play, akin to a child experimenting with unique materials and innovating novel imaginations, embodying the essence of a Gesamtkunstwerk.
Eritage is not just a gallery; it is an immersive experience. Vintage furniture is arranged throughout the space, encouraging dialogue among guests, much like the salons of the 18th century that served as important hubs for intellectual exchange. A pair of 2002 bowling pin table lamps light up a corner with a warm orange and purple glow, while another corner radiates a red aura from a Gaetano Sciolari Sputnik Floor Lamp from the 1970s. The space is filled with eclectic furniture, including an Italian Midcentury Trolley Bar from the 1970s, experimental lamps from the 1960s, and Italian tubular chrome steel dining chairs. This interactive environment invites exploration, with unique pieces that can be sat on, used as platforms, or admired as sources of light, creating a dynamic and engaging atmosphere for all who visit. The plethora of emotions experienced while walking around, sitting, and conversing is amplified by the sound of smooth jazz, samba, or funk filling the entire space.
Taste is seamlessly integrated into the experience of States of Play Part II. Canto, a bar in the corner of Eritage, is a new addition to Eritage’s gesamtkunstwerk. Canto serves natural wines that delicately touch the taste buds of observers, uniquely and harmoniously complementing the art and catalyzing new insights. The enticing tastes and aromas of homemade sourdough pizza and fresh oysters fill the space of Eritage as the sun sets. Laughter, chatter, and natural wine enhance the multisensory experience at Eritage.
To explore States of Play Part II is to be immersed in a multisensory exploration of art, beauty, and sensations. Wagner’s popularized term Gesamtkunstwerk is reflected in the space of Eritage, where curiosity flourishes. Eritage creates an overall harmonizing effect, allowing the dialogue of furniture, music, multimedia art, drinks, and food to flourish.
Modern Hieroglyphics: Jamel Armand's "Rooted"
Jamel Armand’s mural, Rooted, is a part of Eritage’s exhibition States of Play: Part II.
by Alexander Picoult
On June 9th, 2024, Jamel Armand visited Eritage Art Projects to transform the space in a single day. In preparation for the opening of States of Play: Part II, Armand was asked to create a floor-to-ceiling mural in his signature hieroglyphic style.
All photographs by Matilde Fieschi
The work itself only took about ninety minutes to complete. Fueled by the music enveloping the room, Armand created an inspired masterpiece without any planning. With just a foam roller and a tray of black paint, the wall began to come to life in minutes. Armand identifies with a condition called synesthesia, where certain senses are entangled due to crossovers in brain pathways. For Armand, music influences his geometries and visual perception. For this reason, for the entire ninety minutes, jazz music and ambient noise was flowing through the space, and he rarely broke from concentration.
Armand attributes his symbolic style directly to his Indonesian heritage. His work includes a series of slightly varied yet repeated motifs reminiscent of early cave drawings and hieroglyphs. In this iteration, Armand has included fourteen skulls, fourteen faces, ten hands, six snakes, three chickens, one eye, one alligator, and one llama-wolf hybrid.
There are two main reasons that Armand’s mural fits so well with the philosophy of States of Play.
First, the mural’s apparent harmony as a result of carefree randomness. As I stated before, Armand did not plan the layout of the mural in advance of his trip to Portugal aside from wall placement and size. Instead, Armand seemed to enter a trance, and the composition was influenced by real-time factors. This can be distinctly classified as a form of ‘play’ itself. To experiment freely without the constraints of restriction on composition, color and form is to play. When art becomes calculated, planned, and academic, all sense of play is lost and the process instead becomes a task.
Second, the return to simplicity that a language of symbols requires. By referencing a symbolic Indonesian language created hundreds of years ago, Armand is forcing us to return to the true definition of art: the purest form of visual expression created by a human and a tool. The mural transforms Eritage into a cave of its own, reminding the viewer of the earliest way of creating art and existing as a playful being.
As framed fittingly by co-curator David Shillinglaw: Playing is story telling too; imagining and exaggerating, early man scratching bison on the wall and slapping muddy hand prints to decorate a cave, making a home and sharing stories with your tribe.
We invite you to explore Armand’s work, as well as the seven other artists contributing to States of Play: Part II, opening on June 26th, 2024 at Eritage Art Projects.
Exhibition Highlight: States of Play (Part II)
States of Play (Part II), presented by Eritage Art Projects from June 26th to August 17st, 2024 is a joint exhibition with collaborative work from eight artists: Abel B Burger (France), David Shillinglaw (United Kingdom), Expanded Eye (United Kingdom), Jamel Armand (Netherlands), Kylie Wentzel (South Africa), Mafia Tabak (Austria), Martin Daiber (Chile), and Stephen Smith (United Kingdom).
by Alexander Picoult
Curation Statement:
We all play; it is a universal requirement.
We begin our lives in a state of play and constant discovery. Encouraged to free-flow, bang the drum, bark like a dog, imagine the spoon is an aeroplane flying into your mouth..
It is playing that allows us to first touch and fully grasp the world.
Playing is problem solving; building blocks and a jigsaw puzzle piece, or the unmistakable sound of a child searching for just the right piece of Lego. Playing comes before words and is a language of its own.
“Children learn through play, adults play through art” -Brian Eno.
Playing is story telling too; imagining and exaggerating, early man scratching bison on the wall and slapping muddy hand prints to decorate a cave, making a home and sharing stories with your tribe.
Playing is lying and trickery, a card illusion or puppets performing for people in the street.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” -William Shakespeare.
As we age, we as individuals and as a species continue to play but the playing becomes more serious, there are rules. Play fighting becomes war and survival. Games become sport with losers and sacrifices. Battles play out on global political Chess boards, taking and shaking lands and lives, playing God with guns and medicines, diseases and displacement.
We gamble too, we love risk and a feeling of being lucky; the higher the stakes the greater the prize. Perhaps it is the chance of losing that makes winning so sweet and intoxicating.
We play with our bodies, all singing, all dancing, kicking and punching our way into fun and games; but ultimately it is in our brain where the playing really takes place. Our minds are playgrounds, full of fears and fantasies, when we dream we play without a second thought, making connections and joining the dots.
Whether we look to music, sport, comedy or food, it is in the human mind that the rules for play are imagined and boundaries for play are defined. There are thin lines, nuanced and contextual, what is celebrated in a boxing ring would be punishable in the street, a comedy punchline out of place could start a culture war. The way we play and the shared experience of playing is a measure of the individual and the collective human condition.
Art may be one of the few places where playing remains pure and childlike, where the winning and losing go hand in hand like two sides of the same coin. Artists push and pull the work to a point where it can not return, a place where the prize is the process itself.
In a world obsessed with being first, fast, right and rich, Art feels like one of the few places where it is safe to fail, and playing is still taken seriously without anybody getting hurt.
- David Shillinglaw
All photographs by Matilde Fieschi
With the addition of two new artists and eleven new works, States of Play at Eritage has entered its second phase. Although the core concept of this extension is the same as the previous two months, the added works and the complete rearrangement of the space have created a new emphasis on the human body and an enhanced dialogue between the pieces.
The most notable change to the exhibition lies in Jamel Armand’s black and white mural spanning from floor to ceiling of the western wall of the gallery. The mural is made up of symbols such as human faces, snakes, hands, and skulls all drawn in a cubic or geometric manner. Armand attributes his symbolic style directly to his Indonesian heritage. His work includes a series of slightly varied yet repeated motifs reminiscent of early cave drawings and hieroglyphs.
The style, as well as Armand’s choice of subject matter immediately implies a decentralization of the orderly aesthetic and a prioritization of simple geometric forms – mainly the human body. This work, therefore, outlines a new theme for the exhibition: an appreciation of human form, stripped to its most natural and instinctual properties.
David Shillinglaw, the co-curator of States of Play joins the show as an artist and his two pieces, Common Threads I and II converse with Armand’s introduction of a hieroglyphic-like figure. The two pieces mirror each other in form and face each other on opposite ends of the eastern wall of the gallery. In this way, they frame the edges of the wall in a way that entangles all the pieces, suggesting the horizontal storyline of an early cave painting. The works themselves are created with quilted fabrics rather than paint, which requires an amalgamation of materials.
Such a construction process adds meaning to the human form; it is not a singular thing. Rather, it is formed by complex layers and enclosed by an imperfect stitching process. Shillinglaw’s decision to include fabrics in all colors, textures, and patterns emphasizes this complexity and suggests that we can find the most complex aspects of ourselves even in simple ways of self-exploration.
Following the gaze of Shillinglaw’s humanoids inward, we find the two added pieces from English duo and resident artists at Eritage, Expanded Eye. Titled Clouds In My Hands and The Sky Danced with Me, Expanded Eye’s works serve as explorations of the inner, spiritual self. Expanded Eye works in a partially three-dimensional manner, employing rope, fabrics, and varied textiles to add more intrigue and nuance to their pieces. This, in combination with Shillinglaw’s fabric constructions open a new and exciting pathway within this extended exhibition. Interestingly, Expanded Eye’s pieces also only show two-dimensional representations of the human body, similar to Armand and Shillinglaw’s works.
Expanded Eye’s style leans into the surreal, creating bodily compositions that are otherworldly and unnatural. By portraying entangled limbs and distorted facial features, the duo implies that one’s body must not be defined by the external world but rather the internal emotions that one inhabits. In this way, the body embraces its cerebral, playful elements and breaks free from the constraints of normativity.
The new arrangement of States of Play provides an intriguing, yet comforting, walkthrough experience. Martin Daiber’s The Painter remains at the front of the exhibition, with its theme of self-exploration and discovery setting the tone for the viewer’s experience. Shillinglaw’s mirrored Common Threads pieces unify the eastern wall and draw visitors into the back of the exhibition. Here, they’ll find an intimate cluster of pieces made up of Stephen Smith’s six paper assemblages, six of Abel B. Burger’s comic-like storyboards, and two of Shillinglaw’s Fabric Humanoids. This corner is defined by an orange, yellow, and all-around earthy color scheme as well as circular forms that permeate all the pieces. While all of the artists featured in this exhibition employ completely different media and techniques, it is remarkable to see such unifying similarities throughout the show, as if the walls were conversing with each other.
We invite you to explore States of Play: Part II with us until August 30th, and experience the joys found in the playful innovation of our eight contributing artists.
Exhibition Highlight: Between Lands and Moons
By Alexander Picoult
Between Lands and Moons, presented by Eritage Art Projects from May 9th to June 8th, 2024, is a solo exhibition featuring the work of artist Peu Mello (BR).
Photo by Bahia Kazemipour
Curation Statement:
“Between Lands and Moons” invites viewers to contemplate the cosmic interconnection that unites us to the vastness of the universe and the pulsating energy of the Earth through the work of Peu Mello.
Inspired by his travels in recent years between Brazil, Portugal, and Angola. He developed a new series of work aligned with his gravitational movement. The exhibition delves into the intricate relationship between lunar rhythms and life cycles, highlighting their profound impact and influence on human displacement and behaviour.
Just as the moon exerts its gravitational attraction, the Earth’s magnetic field plays an essential role in the navigation and orientation of various animal species during migratory movements.
By incorporating this facet of nature, the exhibition offers a sensitive view of the complexity of natural systems that have shaped migration journeys in the broader context of evolutionary history.
Peu Mello brings his research of textures using natural pigment creating different points of view that are lost in the scale between the micro and macro within the expanded organized chaos of the universe. A reflection on the influences of the universe to where it takes us and what makes us feel and how we can contribute to the world at every moment.
The presence of small silhouettes in some of the paintings speaks not only of humanity’s interrelatedness with the world around us but primarily about the significance of connecting with our own essence during life's journey.
The juxtaposition of earthy tones evokes a feeling of wonder and introspection.
Mello’s artworks serve as a guide, gently pushing viewers into a deeper state of self-awareness and mindfulness. An invitation to reflect on the innate wisdom that resides within us.
“Between Lands and Moons” encourages viewers to tune into their instincts, to listen to the whispers of intuition that guide us on our journey through life. By honouring and valuing these senses, we tap into a deeper reservoir of inner wisdom, aligning ourselves with the natural flow of the universe.
Between Lands and Moons | Exhibition View
Peu Mello has transformed Eritage’s secondary space into an unknown environment. “Between Lands and Moons” possesses a transportative quality; whether you find solace in the scorching desert plains, the icy terrain of a faraway planet, or the moon’s craters, Mello evokes them all in one room.
Peu Mello | Table of Manifest
While the exhibition preaches the exploration of one’s internal qualities and further discovery of self, the works themselves also draw the viewer’s attention away from the anthropogenic and into nature itself. Thus, Mello suggests that the path to self discovery is not only achieved via interaction with others, but also through a reconnection to the land and a prioritization of quiet meditations. In this way, the realm of the human and realm of the land appear to collide, namely in the work Table of Manifest.
This specific installation contains a table with an array of natural items like rocks, soil, sand, and crystals in conversation with personal memorabilia and collected human items. However, under the table lies a perfect ring made up of only sand, rocks, and flowers. There is a sharp contrast between the ring’s orderly, perfectly circular pattern, and the wild disorder of the human objects above, perhaps suggesting a level of innate organization in nature that is severely lacking in modern human society. In order to reach such elevation, one must declutter internally to find the order lying beneath, untapped.
Peu Mello | Moon
The incredible scale of Mello’s works enhances feelings of pleasant desolation and soul searching. Moon is one such work. The amorphous texture of acrylic on wood creates a pattern that resembles the texture of the moon’s surface, or perhaps the limitless reach of space. In comparison, the miniscule ‘M’ stands in great diminution. Whether it stands for the moon itself, or the individual making a trek through outer space, its size places great emphasis on the vastness of nature, and in a parallel way the vastness of one’s internal mind. Moon forces us to encounter the possibility that it may be completely impossible to ever discover all the secrets of the outside world and of the self.
Peu Mello | Namibe Desert Photos
The variety of media in this exhibition extends beyond rocks, natural materials, and natural dyes to photography, as well. In Namibe Desert Photos, Mello explores a different perspective of the peaceful loneliness in nature. Unlike the paintings in this exhibition, these photographs do not contain any human figures. However, the act of photographing requires a human presence, indicating that even without direct representation, a human among the vastness of nature still carries through.
I sat down with Mello to understand more about his artistic process and the significance of his work.
PICOULT: What do you feel is the fundamental connection between humanity and nature? How do you feel art has a place in that dynamic?
MELLO: If you think from the point of view of the micro and macro, I always believe that what’s on top is the same as what’s below. The scale of the universe can relate to the scale of all the cells in our bodies. For us, this means that humanity is a soldier of nature. Take the Hindu beliefs; they have a creator, a demonstrator, and a destroyer. We, as humans, all have that cycle and oscillation. We are born again from the ashes.
PICOULT: Do you believe that cyclical forces of construction and destruction have celestial influences in your art?
MELLO: Yes, I believe that totally. One thing brings the other. Good exists because bad exists – and that movement keeps the energy going. Everything is energy. Energy is always oscillating, just like the swinging rock in Warrior’s Balance.
PICOULT: Did the concept of energy play a conscious role in merging this exhibition with meditation sessions?
MELLO: I think this exhibition talks – not just for me, but everyone that can come here – about self-discipline, self-balance and being able to reach a place where you are comfortable in you. Group meditation is something I used to do in Rio, and something that always made me feel so good because everyone is in contact and enters the same energy through song. We create this constellation of energy, which is something very rich and comfortable for the soul.
Meditating with the exhibition brings you to some other place. As the rock spins, it creates an energetic field here. The math of its turns creates perfect drawings of mandalas in the air. I believe this follows the Hindu concept that we can achieve our plenitude through meditation and being a good soul.
Between Lands and Moons | Exhibition View
Despite its ambient otherworldly qualities, Between Lands and Moons is strikingly accurate to the human experience of finding oneself and exploring the world at large. Mello’s work succeeds at creating a visual representation of what it means to achieve humanity through solitude and reflection.
Exhibition Highlight: States of Play (Part I)
By Alexander Picoult
States of Play, presented by Eritage Art Projects from March 27th to May 26th, 2024 is a joint exhibition with collaborative work from six artists: Abel B Burger (France), Jamel Armand (Netherlands), Kylie Wentzel (South Africa), Mafia Tabak (Austria), Martin Daiber (Chile), Stephen Smith (United Kingdom).
States of Play (Part I) | Exhibition View
Curation Statement:
We all play; it is a universal requirement.
We begin our lives in a state of play and constant discovery. Encouraged to free-flow, bang the drum, bark like a dog, imagine the spoon is an aeroplane flying into your mouth..
It is playing that allows us to first touch and fully grasp the world.
Playing is problem solving; building blocks and a jigsaw puzzle piece, or the unmistakable sound of a child searching for just the right piece of Lego. Playing comes before words and is a language of its own.
“Children learn through play, adults play through art” -Brian Eno.
Playing is story telling too; imagining and exaggerating, early man scratching bison on the wall and slapping muddy hand prints to decorate a cave, making a home and sharing stories with your tribe.
Playing is lying and trickery, a card illusion or puppets performing for people in the street.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” -William Shakespeare.
As we age, we as individuals and as a species continue to play but the playing becomes more serious, there are rules. Play fighting becomes war and survival. Games become sport with losers and sacrifices. Battles play out on global political Chess boards, taking and shaking lands and lives, playing God with guns and medicines, diseases and displacement.
We gamble too, we love risk and a feeling of being lucky; the higher the stakes the greater the prize. Perhaps it is the chance of losing that makes winning so sweet and intoxicating.
We play with our bodies, all singing, all dancing, kicking and punching our way into fun and games; but ultimately it is in our brain where the playing really takes place. Our minds are playgrounds, full of fears and fantasies, when we dream we play without a second thought, making connections and joining the dots.
Whether we look to music, sport, comedy or food, it is in the human mind that the rules for play are imagined and boundaries for play are defined. There are thin lines, nuanced and contextual, what is celebrated in a boxing ring would be punishable in the street, a comedy punchline out of place could start a culture war. The way we play and the shared experience of playing is a measure of the individual and the collective human condition.
Art may be one of the few places where playing remains pure and childlike, where the winning and losing go hand in hand like two sides of the same coin. Artists push and pull the work to a point where it can not return, a place where the prize is the process itself.
In a world obsessed with being first, fast, right and rich, Art feels like one of the few places where it is safe to fail, and playing is still taken seriously without anybody getting hurt.
- David Shillinglaw
States of Play opens with Martin Daiber’s The Painter, the epitome of self-discovery as it results from play. The seated figure holds up his own creation: a self-portrait. The figure’s work becomes an inscription of his lived experience and a validation of non-linear, non-traditional expression of self. The self-portrait in the image bears a stark contrast to the figure’s environment as it remains more simple and polished in comparison to the heavily geometric and partitioned background. Such a distinction reveals the powerful impact that playfulness enacts on the reinvention of perspective and reinterpretation of existence.
Martin Daiber | 06 paper assemblages, 45x60cm
Stephen Smith | acrylic, oil stick, collage on paper, 70 x 100cm
Like The Painter, many works in States of Play engage a myriad of media, adding a three-dimensional component and enhancing overall visuality. Daiber’s six paper assemblages, Smith’s eight compositions, and Armand’s Spirited, all engage in this multimedia approach. The combination of textures that arises from torn paper and cardboard mixed with paint and typography is reminiscent of childlike crafting. To broaden one’s use of material and embrace the physicality of rough objects indicates a detachment from the highly-structured life of the grown adult, tainted by corruption and social anxieties. A return to childlike sensibilities, however, is the purest form of observation of the natural world and consequently, internal growth.
Abel B Burger | The Pleasant Dream, 70 x 100 cm
Abel Burger introduces a childlike state of wonder with her hybrid works of typography and image. The Pleasant Dream utilizes poetry and portrayals of retro cartoons to evoke a dreamlike condition. As stated in her mission, the use of poetry opens up a “parallel world, one concerned with the poetry of sleep & returns to mythology and the dream state as a way to delve into humanity's sense of belonging.” The words ‘paint to buy a horse’ and ‘paint to have a good life’ evoke a sense of childhood manifestation and the nostalgia of hopefulness, as well as position painting (and art as a whole) as a means of reaching bliss.
Burger’s Prairie speaks of another life in which ‘we have summers and winters / and every morning I… / put another log on yesterday’s fire…’ The poem concludes with a bittersweet longing for a state where she ‘[doesn’t] need to dream anymore.’ For Burger, a return to the free-spirited longings of childhood brings a melancholy realization that adult life is the anti-dream-state. Without play, grownup life is monotonous and lacks the carefree qualities of Prairie’s composition. In this dream world, two suns exist against the laws of nature, the plains are wide open, and the spirit of life is untamed by civilization.
Mafia Tabak artworks
Mafia Tabak’s pieces are distinguished by their anti-dimensionality in this exhibition. In I miss you in my dreams and when I wake up I miss the dream of you, Tabak’s self-described ‘Naive art’ does not conform to the traditional way of visualizing three-dimensional space. Tables rest on top of roofs, roofs on top of chairs, and houses erupt from walls. The title suggests that this disorderly view arises from a longing for connection, and perhaps creates a visual representation of a dream world in its purest form.
Tabak believes that his ‘‘badly’ coloured colouring pictures show that he purely and simply did not forget the joy of unschooled creation.’ The pieces take advantage of the rough paper on which they were created, revealed by the crosshatchings of crayon. Roughness, therefore, plays a pivotal role in understanding that purity does not arise from visual organization, but rather an unrestricted experimentation of material. In this way, Tabak emulates a state of play that defies any conception of ‘correct’ or ‘ideal’ ways of creating art and visual interest.
States of Play (Part I) | Exhibition View
States of Play works to create an environment where individuality and uninhibited explorations of color, form, material, and composition take place. Through unfiltered experimentation, these six artists demonstrate that a deeper connection to the soul, and thus, one’s ability to create art, establishes them as a contributor to society, discovery, and the search for knowledge.
WE ARE ALL CREATIVE BEINGS
ERITAGE’s main purpose is to use Art as a tool to achieve cultural and social evolution, as we believe this has been its major role throughout the centuries. Our Activities program is dedicated to artistic plurality and creative freedom, where diverse art forms converge to create captivating experiences. The program aims to unleash our potential as creative beings and foster new cooperation through shared artistic production.
Gio Lourenço | PERFORMANCE: O CAMINHO DA ÁGUA
Performances at ERITAGE excite the creative minds of multidisciplinary art lovers and open new pathways of exploration for those just discovering how visual art, music, and movement can fuse together in harmony.
See more: Submersos | O CAMINHO DA ÁGUA
See more: Revivescência | O CAMINHO DA ÁGUA N.º1
More about our most recent performance: O Caminho da Água No.1…
One artist’s stories of "Reviviscence: A Journey to the Present” moved fellow artists and viewers to unveil their own creative freedom and acknowledge that from art, we gather inspiration. Witnessing this one-of-a-kind combination of rhythms and choreography that pay homage to the cultural roots interwoven into the painted tales of our current exhibition was an experience that prompted equal parts curiosity and understanding.
DJ SoundPreta
Working in delicate balance with one another, DJ SoundPreta of Brazil and Angolan dancer Marisa Paulo performed amidst the vibrant and colorful scenes of Osvaldo Ferreira’s Revivescência. This unique fusion of visual and performing art forms left the audience tasked with finding the common threads and themes between music, poetry, movement and the essence of Reviviscence.
Marisa Paulo
A newfound appreciation has arisen for the creativity necessary to develop a performance that manages to capture the remarkable stories of the history and traditions lifted by Osvaldo Ferreira from the heart of Angola and shared through brushstrokes on canvas.
Read more: Revivescência | O Caminho da Água No.1
…
ERITAGE hosted Unleash Your Creative Power, developing one edition of this event in dialogue with our COSMOS exhibition, to encourage artists and non-artists alike to spark the flame of creativity that we all possess.
A pioneer in the growing world of experiential learning, Jean Philippe Rosier of Perestroika guided us through various creative methodologies that expand our ability to tap into the most innovative versions of ourselves.
Trying to train the elements of chaos in our universe into order is a widely evident theme presented in David Shillinglaw’s COSMOS exhibition. At ERITAGE, we draw inspiration from the works of art on our walls and train ourselves to never resist leaning into creativity.
As a community, we seek out every opportunity to explore the power of creative expression on all types of innovation. To see and experience COSMOS is to understand that nothing better aligns with the exhibition than an expertly guided attempt to Unleash Your Creative Power.
…
Through 6 editions of VINEART activities, ERITAGE has brought lovers of both wine and art along for journeys to sensory delight.
See more: VINEART | BRAIDED MATRICES ACTIVITIES
Removed from our daily spheres and guided through the works of art on the walls of ERITAGE, we immerse ourselves in a new experience with every event.
See more: VINEART | BRAIDED MATRICES ACTIVITIES
Each VINEART event at ERITAGE promises, in essence, a night spent sipping wines carefully curated by sommelier Justin O’Hanlon while appreciating the beauty of a unique synchronized storytelling experience.
See more: VINEART | REVIVESCÊNCIA ACTIVITIES
Multi-sensory observations amidst this blend of hand-selected wines, tasteful assortments of food, conversations with fellow art and wine enthusiasts, and exhibitions that are rich in meaning allow your creative juices to flow.
…
Drink & Draw nights at ERITAGE are marked by a synthesis of sensory experiences, incorporating the most fitting aromas and flavors with the stories told by the awe-inspiring artwork on our walls and by the people surrounding us.
We take the time to enjoy being in the company of creative people. Drink & Draw at ERITAGE allows the ripple of creativity to reach everyone who enters our space — experienced and inexperienced artists alike. Following the paths of inspiration offered by our exhibitions, Drink & Draw events invite opportunities for a unique form of engagement with the art in our gallery.
See more from our collection of ERITAGE Activities: ALL ACTIVITIES
Timeout Lisboa: Maria Lynch sob título Submersos
A Time Out diz
A nova exposição da Galeria Eritage reúne uma nova série de trabalhos em pintura e desenho da brasileira Maria Lynch, que tem um percurso notável no meio artístico internacional, estando presente em importantes colecções na Pinacoteca de São Paulo, na Inhotim e no Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro. “As pinturas, de grande e médio formato, são como ecrãs negros que revelam e simultaneamente ocultam formas inventadas que se relacionam com imagens e fragmentos de cidades, ou objectos estruturais trabalhados com uma paleta cromática muito singular. A casa ou o contentor, imaginário, de desejos e de emoções, é também presente nos desenhos, alguns destes executados a partir das pinturas, como uma reflexão sobre o seu próprio trabalho”, lê-se em nota do curador, João Silvério.
Maria Lynch
A Time Out diz
A nova exposição da Galeria Eritage reúne uma nova série de trabalhos em pintura e desenho da brasileira Maria Lynch, que tem um percurso notável no meio artístico internacional, estando presente em importantes colecções na Pinacoteca de São Paulo, na Inhotim e no Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro. “As pinturas, de grande e médio formato, são como ecrãs negros que revelam e simultaneamente ocultam formas inventadas que se relacionam com imagens e fragmentos de cidades, ou objectos estruturais trabalhados com uma paleta cromática muito singular. A casa ou o contentor, imaginário, de desejos e de emoções, é também presente nos desenhos, alguns destes executados a partir das pinturas, como uma reflexão sobre o seu próprio trabalho”, lê-se em nota do curador, João Silvério.
Why is Venice Drowning in Gloop, Goo and Gore? - Emily Steer
The 2022 Biennale is obsessed with bodily fluids. Emily Steer dives into a sticky subject…
The 2022 Biennale is obsessed with bodily fluids. Emily Steer dives into a sticky subject…
Raphaela Vogel, The Milk of Dreams, 2022, installation view at the Venice Biennale. Photo: Louise Benson - ELEPHANT
Bodily fluids frame the whole of the life cycle, from the semen of creation to the blood and guts of death. At the Venice Biennale, fluids leak and drip from exposed body parts and hybrid human forms. In some works, they point to the fragility of the fleshy casings we inhabit. In others, they convey the tactile pleasure of sexuality. They also communicate the violence unleashed on humans and animals by the relentless drive of production and war. Everywhere, fluids spill and pour in the stickiest Biennale yet.
The life cycle begins with Raphaela Vogel’s giant sculpture in the Arsenale: a huge anatomical cross-section of male genitalia acting as a carriage is pulled by a tower of ghostly giraffes, which appear to be formed by energetic sprays of semen. It looks like a pornographic Santa sled.
Raphaela Vogel, The Milk of Dreams, 2022, installation view at the Venice Biennale. Photo: Louise Benson - ELEPHANT
“Everywhere, fluids spill and pour in the stickiest Biennale yet”
The work is as vulgar as it is comical, and on closer inspection it reveals darker undertones of fleshy diseases and genital conditions: explanatory plates on the anatomical model detail prostate cancer, warts and erectile disfunction. Even in this climactic moment, the destruction of the genitals and their attached body is foretold.
Melanie Bonajo, When the body says Yes, 2022, installation view at the Venice Biennale. Photo by Louise Benson - ELEPHANT
Gloopy fluids are referenced more abstractly throughout the Biennale. Melanie Bonajo’s sex-positive video installation When the Body Says Yes, housed inside the stunning Chiesetta della Misericordia, depicts naked performers writhing in thick, gelatinous liquid. Their bodies glisten in the light like glazed doughnuts, as their rhythmic movements squelch over the soundtrack. It is a celebration of bodies in every form, conveying the pleasure of sensual touch and removing the disgusting connotations often connected with the naked human form and fluids. Like everything else in this work, gloop is shown as viscerally beautiful.
In stark contrast, the horror of body fluids and guts is explored violently by Mire Lee, whose imposing installation makes the most of the Arsenale’s abattoir feel. Endless House: Holes and Drips is straight out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre school of gore, depicting skeletal forms draped in sinew and flopped across a steely metal frame. Liquid drops from the stretched-out entrails and ceramic bones, splashing into dirty puddles on the floor. This hellish work presents the body in its basest form: sodden meat with no identifiable human characteristics.
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo), 2022, installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Georges Poncet. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia - ELEPHANT
Off-site, seasoned painter Anselm Kiefer also captures the horror of man as meat. His vast painting installation, These writings, when burned, will finally cast a little light, is situated in one of Palazzo Ducale’s magnificently grand rooms, with gilded ceilings and unbelievably ornate painted panels by Tintoretto, Palma il Giovane, and Andrea Vicentino.
“It’s not just human bodies that leak fluids at the Biennale, alien and cyborg forms are also presented as fleshy and perforable”
Kiefer’s thick oil paintings capture the terror of war, with large areas of congealed carmine paint conveying the deep tone of blood en masse, mingled in the dirt from countless fallen bodies. The painting installation is eerily presaged by the Palazzo’s sprawling weapons cabinets in the preceding rooms, displaying all manner of tools humans have invented to puncture one another with.
Andra Ursuta, The Milk of Dreams, 2022, installation view at the Venice Biennale. Photo by Louise Benson - ELEPHANT
It’s not just human bodies that leak fluids at the Biennale, alien and cyborg forms are also presented as fleshy and perforable. Andra Ursuta’s sculptures at the entrance of the Giardini’s sprawling space are reminiscent of the gooey creatures that terrorise in Alien and many other sci-fi films. Combining wax casting with 3D printing and often using her own body as a model, Ursuta creates creatures that seem to be skinless, formed in wet-looking lilacs, greens and browns. Not only does their moist surface create the squeamish appearance of bare innards, it also makes the sculptures seem covered in alien goo, with connotations of disease and contamination.
Tishan Hsu’s cyborg-inspired works, shown in the Arsenale, are more comfortably combined with the human world. Silicone and alkyd drip through human-shaped holes in futuristic medical and technological equipment. The body is never whole here, just isolated faces and lumps of flesh, depicted in both naturalistic tones and sugary purples and blues.
Tishan Hsu, The Milk of Dreams, 2022, Venice Biennale. Photos by Louise Benson - ELEPHANT
These works explore a mingling of flesh and tech, reflective of a modern world in which the human experience is fed increasingly through man-made forms and technology and less through the physical body. These works show the body in all its wetness as inherently connected with the machines it lives alongside.
“Liquid drops from the stretched-out entrails and ceramic bones, splashing into dirty puddles on the floor”
Jes Fan, meanwhile, works with biological and hormonal fluids almost totally removed from the human form. His glass sculptures are injected with materials including testosterone-laden soap, oestrogen-rich cosmetics and even his mother’s urine. For The Milk of Dreams in the Arsenale, he has created a tiered sculpture from casts of his own body, then covered it in clear globules and drips, based on traditional backflow burners made for incense cones. The work is a nod to Hong Kong’s incense trade, and the industry’s use of a specific resin which is only produced by agarwood trees when they are injured.
Melanie Bonajo, Big Spoon, film still from When the body says Yes, 2022, Venice Biennale. Courtesy of the artist - ELEPHANT
As visitors rubbed dollops of sanitiser into their hands and shielded their faces with masks, liquids of all kinds dripped from sculptures and ran down walls, threatening to mingle with everything and everyone around them. The vulnerability of life is an unavoidable topic of this year’s biennale, as recent pandemics and environmental disasters have shown just how fragile the human body is and how inherently connected it is with the world around it.
What clearer way to highlight the messiness of the current climate, than with the sticky substances that spill from human and animal bodies in moments of elation and devastation?
Emily Steer is Elephant’s editor
find the article: https://elephant.art/why-is-venice-drowning-in-gloop-goo-and-gore-27042022/
Elegant Tattoos by Expanded Eye Combine Fragmented Figures and Geometric Details into Surreal Compositions
Splashes of primary colors enhance the dotted lines and angular forms that compose Expanded Eye’s tattoos. Artists Jade Tomlinson and Kev James (previously) are behind the distinctly geometric designs that pair foliage and natural matter with architectural constructions and figures: single hands extend with delicate gestures, fragmented faces open to unveil inner dimensions, and stripes, chevrons, and other patterns fill structural elements. The ink-based works are poetic and surreal, with each composition rooted in narratives of consciousness, relationships, and universal human emotions like grief and joy.
Expanded Eye currently tattoos at Lisbon’s Eritage Art Projects, which also has some of the duo’s prints and sculptural assemblages available in its shop. They just completed a window installation for Hermès in Barcelona, in addition to a print series titled Eyesolation, which constructed characters from the cobalt tiles typical in Lisbon. See those works alongside more of their tattoos on Instagram.
find the article: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2022/04/expanded-eye-tattoos/
artist’s website
David Shillinglaw Feature by FifthWall TV
As the winter of 2014/15 drew to a close our friends FifthWall TV http://www.fifthwalltv.com/ were able to catch a rare glimpse of an artist coming out of hibernation.
As the winter of 2014/15 drew to a close our friends FifthWall TV http://www.fifthwalltv.com/ were able to catch a rare glimpse of an artist coming out of hibernation.
Ahead of his April 2015 show at Scream Gallery in Central London David was kind enough to give FifthWall a sneak preview into his studio in North London.
Shot and Edited by Doug Gillen at Fifth Wall TV
Interview DP - Ruaraid Achilleos-Sarll
Track - Moby - Wait For Me
BSA SPECIAL FEATURE: DAVID SHILLINGLAW: ALIVE IN THE HUMAN HIVE
“The artworks I make are an absurd visual taxonomy listed in no particular order the ingredients that we all consume and produce,”
“The artworks I make are an absurd visual taxonomy listed in no particular order the ingredients that we all consume and produce,” explains the British painter and Street Artist David Shillinglaw. Clearly, he’ll have enough to paint until his dying day, as we cannot stop producing.
Another gem here: “We are funky little space monkeys orbiting a ball of hot gas”
David Shillinglaw: Alive In The Human Hive
find the article: http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/tag/david-shillinglaw/
Relax, the universe is expanding – David Shillinglaw - Delphian Gallery
“The universe is expanding, apparently. To be honest, I don’t fully understand what that means. It creates more questions for me than answers. Expanding into what? I get lost thinking about it.”
David Shillinglaw explores the conflicted, messy human condition: a relentless need for control within a disordered world. His vibrant, vital paintings present a tumultuous system in which natural forms, freely connected words and human features both burst from and are contained within grids, boxes and organised lines.
David’s book '“Relax, the universe is expanding” —the most expansive the British artist has published to date—provides an overview of his joyful, exploratory practice. Shillinglaw’s paintings, sketches, and sculptures are brought together with texts that have inspired him, to offer insights into how he navigates his own chaos and tries to make sense of life on Earth.
“The universe is expanding, apparently. To be honest, I don’t fully understand what that means. It creates more questions for me than answers. Expanding into what? I get lost thinking about it. All my work is about describing space: the internal space of my mind; the organs and systems under my skin; the physical spaces I inhabit, from rooms, to gardens and trains. This stretches out to the internet or cyber space, the space of a city, a country or continent—the planet as a whole. Perhaps the hardest to comprehend is ‘outer space’. I find it almost impossible to imagine its dark vastness. I find something compelling about trying to explore these ideas through drawing, painting and collage. Like a caveman scratching a constellation on a muddy wall, I construct maps to navigate impossible terrains.
I am lost somewhere between all of these spaces, never quite arriving in one or able to disconnect from another, and that’s ok with me. We all inhabit these places simultaneously. The collisions and overlapping of spaces feed and inform my work: the micro and macro, the physical and psychological, the real and imagined. I am in awe, fuelled by forces of nature, natural phenomena, emergence and entropy, volcanos and tornados, sunlight and water, blood cells and fungus. The universal funk. The cosmic ooze. When it feels daunting or overwhelming, I just tell myself: “Relax. The universe is expanding.”
find the article: https://delphiangallery.com/portfolio/david-shillinglaw-relax/
Artist Story: David Shillinglaw
Taking inspiration from French outsider artist Jean Dubuffet, David Shillinglaw creates bold landscapes and impulsive patterns. From his sunny studio in Margate, he chatted to us about his career as a painter, his collaborations with his partner Lily, and the creative body of work he touchingly refers to as ‘love letters’ to his young daughter.
Taking inspiration from French outsider artist Jean Dubuffet, David Shillinglaw creates bold landscapes and impulsive patterns. From his sunny studio in Margate, he chatted to us about his career as a painter, his collaborations with his partner Lily, and the creative body of work he touchingly refers to as ‘love letters’ to his young daughter.
So, for people who aren’t unfamiliar with your work, how would you best describe it?
Eclectic and impulsive. Informed by the brutal beauty of nature.
Have you always been creative from a young age?
As a child I was always drawing. I never had computer games. Drawing was an easy and cheap way to be entertained. My mum was really creative and always encouraged me to draw, paint, and do collage. I went to quite a strict school where you excelled by being sporty or academic, I didn’t fit into either of those. Art was my escape and refuge. Whenever I got a break, I’d be in the art room working in my sketchbook and listening to my cassette walkman. I was really into comic books, Tank Girl and Robert Crumb were my favourites, which led me to love Pop Art and Surrealism. I remember being about 10 years old and my mum let me decorate my bedroom so I decided to paint ‘Whaam!’by Roy Lichtenstein on my wall.
After school and college, I got a place at Central Saint Martins in London. Unlike most of the other students, I hadn’t done a Foundation Course before I started the degree. I remember the tutors were totally bemused by this fact – like it was some kind of mistake. I was the youngest in the year too and I didn’t find it easy to fit in there. But, like school, it gave me something to push against and to prove myself.
What was behind the move to Margate? Has it affected your work?
I needed somewhere to live and I had friends already living in Margate. It was a bit of a leap of faith, but pretty soon I fell in love with the community here, the live music scene, small galleries, great food and of course the ocean on your doorstep. I can’t imagine being anywhere else now. It has affected my work because I have a separate studio to where I live which helps divide my time and be more productive. Margate is another world compared to London, I always felt London was an impossible mountain to climb, and seemed to get bigger every day. Margate feels like an island and the pace and vibe gives me a lot more time to focus on my own work and home life. I also think seeing the horizon and ocean on a regular basis has influenced my work.
Travel seems to have played a huge part in your life and work. Was there a particular trip that marked a turning point for you?
Ever since I was a teenager, I have always been travelling around. I think reading ‘On The Road’ (Jack Kerouac) and ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ (Hunter S. Thompson) gave me itchy feet. Those books also made me realise that any trip is an adventure waiting to happen. Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson were major role models for me in the sense that they made work on the move and created art as the bi-product of doing other things.
I did a project at university where I made a drawing every hour for 5 days while traveling through 5 different countries. I began in London, flew to Prague and got the train and bus back through Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels. The end result was a hand bound book of drawings. I have always loved sketchbooks but this particular trip really sparked my interest about how important a sketchbook is in the artistic process. Sketchbooks are like travelling studios. They’re also companions. They can be both a tool and a final product.
After graduating I had the opportunity to do a residency in Beijing. I was in China for almost two months, fully releasing the potential of being a full time artist in a place where I didn’t speak the language or understand much of the culture. That trip marked the beginning of a decade of travelling and making art. The two went hand in hand. Rather than taking work to a place to exhibit I would arrive and make a whole new body of work informed by the new place, people, language, food and so on. For me, it was the perfect combination.
Has not being able to travel during the pandemic affected your working practice?
Yes and no. I have travelled a bit and made a few murals, but there have also been very quiet periods of time where perhaps I’d have been offered work, who knows? But the down time has also given me more time to be in the studio, be at home and be with my family. I have a young daughter and my partner and I have enjoyed being locked down together. The pandemic has forced me to settle down a bit, accept and enjoy being grounded. I’m quite hyperactive and restless, I think the last year or so has been good for me. I do miss travelling though, or rather pre-covid traveling, the freedom of jumping on a plane and casually arriving in a foreign place now feels so romantic and exotic. I recently went to France and had to quarantine when I got back. No one likes to quarantine. Especially in the summertime.
You have done some collaborations with your partner Lily (@lilymixe). Your styles are very different, is that helpful?
Lily and I have made a bunch of collaborations. Mostly murals but we also had an exhibition together in Margate and in New York. Our approach to making art is quite different but I think we both benefit from those differences. It is good practice to work with someone whose work is different, it keeps it fresh and takes you out of your comfort zone. I would say that we meet in the middle with subject matter: we both love the natural world, plants, and animals. There is a world of inspiration we share. I love working with her and I can’t wait until we can do that again. But our little girl keeps us very occupied, who knows, maybe one day she will be painting with us too!
How does a working day pan out for you, do you have any set routines?
There is no fixed routine. My working day is determined by how busy I am. Right now I’m three weeks away from a show and book launch so I’m at the studio everyday, usually three times a day, morning, after lunch and again after dinner. I am lucky to live just a few minutes from my studio so I can just walk round and carry on. Daytime is full of admin and organising and the night time is when I paint, although I love painting first thing but I’m usually held up by emails and to-do lists. I force myself to take time out and be with my family too.
Work kind of comes in waves, it builds up and I spend about 6 month obsessing about a body of work and building towards a show. After there is a natural break – literally an empty studio – I pick up the pieces and start again. To be honest, by the time the show is over, I’m already thinking about the next show. I get used to seeing the work everyday and when it’s finished it’s almost sad, like the battle is over. It’s similar to a musician bringing out an album, you spend a lot of time focussed on something and then it’s out of your hands. I’m just lucky that I don’t have to keep singing the same songs for years. I think that must drive musicians mad.
My current body of work has been in the making for over a year and it coincides with a book which has been cooking away for almost two years, so there will be a big release when all this is done. I plan to spend most of September eating watermelon on the beach and teaching my little girl how to build a sandcastle.
‘My sketchbooks are maps of where I have been and where I want to go.’
Sketchbooks seem central to your way of working. Are your ideas formed mainly internally or are they triggered by physical observations or settings?
It’s a mix of both. I draw things I see, a view from the beach or the table top at dinner, but I allow other elements to interrupt the composition. I paint and collage into the sketchbook in the studio, then continue working in it at home. I work on the same page over a number of days, and eventually when there is enough information, the page is complete. My sketchbook serves as a starting point for a studio work or murals, almost like the sketchbook is the hum of a tune that I try to make into a complete song later on.
I often think my sketchbooks are the best things I make. The space of their pages is so intimate. I carry them around with me and they collect time and traces of where I have been. My daughter scribbles in them too. There is a freedom I find in sketchbooks that I don’t easily find on a canvas or a wall. Maybe it’s because it’s not for sale or even able to hang on a wall, this takes away the usual values we place on an artwork and places a new set of values just for me or who I choose to show it to. My sketchbooks are maps of where I have been and where I want to go.
‘Children are incredible mark makers, they just go for it. I envy that freedom and immediacy.’
What is the current driving force for your work? Are certain themes brought to the fore with the fact you now have a daughter and concerns about the world she may have to grow up in?
Yes I think about the world slightly differently with her in mind. I am more and more concerned/influenced by the climate crisis and trying to unravel the landscapes of planet Earth. I made a painting recently that hints at wildfires and imagined futuristic Martian landscapes. Both wildfires and Mars play on my mind a lot. In general, the collapse of eco systems upsets and disturbs me and I can’t help but include it in my work. The new fashion for space tourism also seems absurd and finds its way into my thoughts. My work often attempts to describe my place in the universe and maybe having a child has moved me toward this direction. It’s hard to know, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing. I do know that a lot of my past work was about me and now it’s more about people in general or the planet we all inhabit. I am trying to speak in a universal language, of colours, shapes and lines. I want to make things that don’t really require an explanation, but are felt universally. After all, if you explain a joke it stops being funny.
It is interesting to me that a child of two is able to access art on a very basic level, like that’s a tree, that’s the moon, that’s a rainbow and so on. My daughter also influences my work directly by scribbling on drawings with pens. I encourage her to do this and I have begun to include some of these marks into my work – it’s a love letter to her but also a way to free up my own mark making which can become a little too ‘designed’ sometimes. Children are incredible mark makers, they just go for it. I envy that freedom and immediacy.
Which artists – contemporary or past – inspire you?
One artist who I think about a great deal is Jean Dubuffet, partly because of his work, but also because of the outside artists he championed. I'm very interested in outside art, or as he called it ‘Brut Art’. He’s a big deal to me. I also run an account on Instagram called @the.dirty.paradise. Initially, it began as a way for me to publish zines and organise exhibitions. But, for the past year, it’s changed a bit to become a place where I point to art and artists that I think are great.
What was the last exhibition you went to?
Jean Dubuffet – ‘Brutal Beauty’ at The Barbican, London (until 22 Aug 2021)
Words seem important to you: Do lyrics, music, poetry inspire you?
I have always enjoyed playing with words, either within the work, or the title of the work. Marcel Duchamp once said, ‘The title of a painting is another colour on the artist's palette.’ I love how certain words have double meanings or puns, or sometimes words and numbers just have great geometric form. As time goes on I use words less in my work, but I’m still interested in how compositions can be read like hieroglyphics. My aim is to speak to as many people as possible so using English words will ultimately limit who can access the meaning of work. My favourite writers are Richard Brautigan, Oliver Sacks, Italo Calvino. As for music, I am always listening and discovering new things. For me, top lyricists are Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, David Bowie, and Paul Simon. I like a mix of heartbreak and humour, comedy and tragedy in equal parts.
Back in 2014, we read that you ‘hope to open a restaurant in the middle of a forest that cooks pizza and serves coffee in ceramic pots’. Is that still true?
Haha, yes I’d still love to do that. Food and art are two planets revolving around the same sun. I cook and draw everyday. I’d love to open a restaurant some day...
This interview is from King & McGaw and connected to David Shillinglaw’s exhibition and accompanying book, ‘Relax, The Universe is Expanding’, from 2021 at Delphian Gallery in London.
interview: https://www.kingandmcgaw.com/inspiration/post/artist-story-david-shillinglaw
David’s instagram
Afaina De Jong & InnaVisions with Space of Other at La Architecture Biennale di Venezia
Who is We?
Together with architect Afaina de Jong and artist Debra Solomon, Het Nieuwe Instituut presents Who is We? in response to the central theme of the Biennale, 'How will we live together?'
While 'we' seems to imply inclusion, it often represents a very singular perspective. At a time when social and ecological urgencies demand immediate care and action, it is fundamental to regard 'we' as an even more pluralised pronoun that encompasses all humans and non-humans such as soil, plants, animals, and microbes.
Who is We?
On 20 May 2021, the Dutch pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia openned, one year later than planned. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, Het Nieuwe Instituut will not be able to safely invite visitors to the opening in Venice. This offered the opportunity to develop a hybrid opening that is more freely accessible, while still doing justice to the theme of the pavilion and the efforts of all those involved.
This is why Venice came in a digital programme with outgoing Minister of Education, Urban Director Amsterdam Mavis Carrilho, Guus Beumer, Francien van Westrenen, Afaina de Jong, Debra Solomon, Caroline Nevejan, Mike Emmerik, Simone Rots, Lada Hršak, Chiara Dorbolò, Daphne Bakker, Tymon Hogenelst, Jesse van der Ploeg, Mistah Isaac, Sirishkumar Manji and Reinier van Houdt.
Who is We?
Together with architect Afaina de Jong and artist Debra Solomon, Het Nieuwe Instituut presents Who is We? in response to the central theme of the Biennale, 'How will we live together?'
While 'we' seems to imply inclusion, it often represents a very singular perspective. At a time when social and ecological urgencies demand immediate care and action, it is fundamental to regard 'we' as an even more pluralised pronoun that encompasses all humans and non-humans such as soil, plants, animals, and microbes. This position should guide all human behaviour, but Who is We? specifically calls for architects and urbanists to commit to this plurality by presenting an empathic plea against monoculture and homogeneity. Who is We? illustrates that polyphony and plurality create the relations and interactions essential to building just and resilient societies and cities.
Who is We? is made possible by the generous support of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the City of Amsterdam, the City of Rotterdam, and the Creative Industries Fund NL.
the artist’s website
Feira de Usados: sobre a História ou sobre a história de Machine Utopia
O Conceito e sua Autoridade Sistemática
crítico sob rasura: Caio Eduardo Gabriel
“Existe maior dificuldade em interpretar as interpretações do que em interpretar as coisas.” Assim começa Derrida o seu A Estrutura, o Signo e o Jogo nas Ciências Humanas.
O Conceito e sua Autoridade Sistemática
crítico sob rasura: Caio Eduardo Gabriel
“Existe maior dificuldade em interpretar as interpretações do que em interpretar as coisas.” Assim começa Derrida o seu A Estrutura, o Signo e o Jogo nas Ciências Humanas. Todo o resto, tudo o que não seja essa intuição, pautada na suspensão total da metafísica, é vítima de alguma ideia de absoluto. Aqui, nem alhures, o leitor terá acesso à coisa, à coisa em-si, à coisa em-si-para-si. Nem terá acesso a um mínimo que seja de Utopia Machine Art Ensemble #0.
Em publicação de 25 de setembro de 2021, na Revista Artecapital, Victor Pinto da Fonseca se pergunta sobre fugas de um Sistema (assim, com caixa alta grafado) que, segundo o autor, tem conduzido - eu penso em inter-ditado - a arte portuguesa desde os anos 80. Tal sistema pertenceria a uma velha ordem, que teria colhido o seu sucesso da falsa sensação de segurança que produz. Essa segurança, por sua vez, se assentaria sobre um ideal, advindo de “reflexos ideológicos” dos anos 80: a arte orientada para ações conceituais. Destacadas as reflexões menos pautadas em historiografias, relevamos dois pontos da geografia desenhada, as que giram em torno do ideal e do conceitual. Trataremos, cuidaremos, com olhos saudáveis, o texto a partir desses dois termos, buscando pisar sobre as superfícies textuais que o autor compõe.
Quando são valorizadas a “verdadeira liberdade dos assuntos artísticos", a crítica “educada para ser passiva” é entendida como resultado de um “controle de certo modo paternalista” que “controla o tempo para legitimar sua obra.” Destacamos todos esses pontos por encontrarmos coerência desde aqueles termos ideal e conceitual até o modo como surgem as críticas expostas ao paternalismo e sua relação com o controle do tempo. Victor enxerga um traçado entre a história do conceito e do sistema e seus mecanismos criadores de poder, expresso pela ideia de pai e de tempo, além de toda a relação de tal constructo com o ideal, com a história da metafísica.
O sistema é um dos nomes, ou resultados, da estrutura, um jogo impensável sem a presença. Define-se esta como um centro caracterizado por, a um passo, ser Necessária à estrutura e ausente dela. Sendo assim, podemos verificar uma constante troca metafórica e metonímica de tais centros; uma imagem recorrente para estes é a do pai, quem diz, delimita, ou inter-dita, o significado das coisas.
Será, portanto, um conceito ou a estranheza do conceito a arte que busque obliterar essa centralidade?
Utopia Machine não tem pai. Se Lacan dispõe o espelho sobre o analisando, aqui há um único espelho, que se produz por coincidência de produtos em um espaço, mas o espelho se estatela em meio à galeria e se multiplica em migalhas poli-refletoras de singularidades múltiplas. Mas pode restar a pergunta: e qual o processo que leva a tal resultado? Portanto: intuímos que seja a exclusão dessa pergunta, por impertinência de suas categorias, a resposta mesma a ela. Explico. O resultado, e todas as suas ideias circundantes ou subordinadas, assim como a pergunta pela origem, deve ser eliminado. A persistência processual parece o caminho de aposta para compor a exposição.
Como lembramos, de uma estrutura, houve sempre o interesse pelo encontro de um centro. É, entretanto, de puras diferenças que ela se forma. Num sistema que oblitera subjetividades - e o que cria o sentido é aquilo em que um valor difere do outro - não há espaço para a estrutura subordinativa.
Esse sistema fluido descreve o modo de funcionamento da língua, para nos fiarmos a algum dado sensível de nosso uso cotidiano (possivelmente até inconsciente.) As distâncias puras, e tão somente, são as criadoras da linguagem, desde a observação de Ferdinand du Saussure, “na língua, só há diferenças.” Longe de qualquer essência, mesmo que ela se encarregue, por motivo da típica insegurança filosófica, de criar mecanismos geradores de realidade, a ilusão do estável, a suposição do organismo gerado pelo pai.
Fantasma Crítico
Fui chamado a participar, sim, de parte do processo artístico. Isso exatamente porque a proposta é que seja sempre processo, jamais produto, jamais possa estar no horizonte ôntico das finalidades - ou finalizações. Isso indica o #0, que compõe o nome dado a determinado encadeamento processual que se faz ver hoje na Galeria Eritage; isso indica o novelo vermelho ao chão, finalizando as pautas de corda vermelha que recobrem uma das paredes expostas, e como que corrompe o fim por meio do indício do resto. Isto que vemos espalhado pela galeria: um conjunto de restos de processo, como se o mecanismo, a estrutura, ou sistema, tivessem abandonado um espaço compondo o que será História, pelas ruínas que revela.
Por tudo isso, também o digo, este texto jamais pode ser um texto crítico. Será sempre um objeto literário que sobrou ao lado daquela civilização arruinada, ou cidade submersa à espera de escafandristas que nada mais poderão obter do que novos estímulos a ainda outras criações; jamais teremos explicações, ou necessidade de complementos, que venham revelar um sentido profundo, obscuro.
Cada etapa do sistema produtivo é o inalcançável que deixa por trás de si um rastro, que não é a coisa em si, nem deixa de sê-la, é alguma coisa que desliza entre o mito e o real como uma segunda oposição, a das categorias da exclusão (nem-nem) e da adição (e-e). Produz-se música, por trás dela rasteja uma pintura, a qual por sua vez devém abandonada em troca de novos sons, num processo em que máquinas se engatam em novas máquinas, sons se desterritorializam em traços e tons coloridos, e se reterritorializam em harmonias e tons audíveis. Quem decide se a verdade da obra está nas composições que somente restam a quem se deixou por elas marcar no dia da abertura da exposição; ou se o alvo do real se encontra no último papel pintado e depositado dentro de uma bolsa suspensa em uma das paredes da galeria? Isso traz nova pergunta, quem assina os trabalhos, se alguns artistas que passaram, deixaram suas pegadas sobre eles, simplesmente passaram e os largaram, como a água que abandona o leite a condensar num galão industrial?
Esses trabalhos, se os encaramos de frente, não têm margens; se nos aproximamos de alguns, vemos exatamente pegadas, não sabemos de quais sapatos - ou seriam tênis, pés descalços? Adquirem sem medo algumas das faces do caos que intuímos quando abandonamos toda metafísica e olhamos os fenómenos sem guarda-chuvas, sem a necessidade da cabana de Descartes em Meditações Metafísicas, largando-nos como as folhas de mais sorte, que não caem em velhos tanques como sapos de haicais, mas se soltam aos sobressaltos de largos rios, e daí aos refluxos do mar.
Isto nunca poderá ser um texto crítico, mas sempre um texto escrito ao lado, mais um resto acumulado que compõe o que chamamos História. Mais um objeto na feira de antigos objetos usados, entre relógios e relíquias.
O Rés, o Raso, o Resto
Nossos gestos são o que resta das nossas obras - ou podemos dizer o contrário? O que se aprofunda, o que se adensa, e resta ao que se esvai, é o que produz História, sem ser, sem centro. Precisamos de epoqué para intuir o mundo da vida. Nem matemáticas, nem geometrias, nem filosofias resistem a uma análise mais rigorosa, mais atenta, eternamente atenta. Após esta, o que resta? Criações e restos, criações e restos, infinitamente criações e restos sobrepostos.
Assim, se compôs a Máquina Utópica - ela mesma, um próprio resto, desde o nome, o que sobrou de uma utopia, do impossível imaginado. Cada tela surge de situações diversas, entre sons e camadas de tinta: as telas acumulam sucessivas pinceladas, sumindo algumas cores, e restando em texturas, enrijecendo a história que contam, desde finos tecidos até se tornarem matéria densa e dura. Passos e poeira compõem a proposta. Uma partitura de linhas pregadas na parede e sacos pintados foi tocada em algum momento, agora balançam à brisa do tempo como roupas em um varal de alguma cidade abandonada. Tintas sobre papeis se acumulam em uma sacola, como alguma coisa deixada por quem se preparava para viajar, mas as esqueceu ao partir, e não retornará de viagem.
Este texto, espero, algum dia, embrulhará um peixe, impresso em algum papel barato.
crítico sob rasura: Caio Eduardo Gabriel
NAME DROP FOR THE AFRICAN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION | WORKSHOP WITH FRANCISCO VIDAL
Name drop for the African Industrial Revolution
Workshop participants were invited to take part in a work in progress by artist Francisco Vidal entitled Name drop for the African Industrial Revolution. The work consists of a performance in which Vidal draws portraits of the participants in an analogy to The Artist is Present, a work Marina Abramović showed at MoMA, New York, in 2010.
Name drop for the African Industrial Revolution | Workshop with Francisco Vidal | from: MAAT
Name drop for the African Industrial Revolution
Workshop participants were invited to take part in a work in progress by artist Francisco Vidal entitled Name drop for the African Industrial Revolution. The work consists of a performance in which Vidal draws portraits of the participants in an analogy to The Artist is Present, a work Marina Abramović showed at MoMA, New York, in 2010. The performance came about in 2014, when Francisco Vidal was teaching in Luanda and, because of the lack of drawing paper, was forced to draw portraits on Xerox paper. The possibility of making copies rapidly combined with the academic notebook format opened new directions for the portrait as a useful tool for just social change.
In a second moment of the workshop, Vidal challenged the participants to discover the “backstage” of MAKA Lisboa performance, that reflects his recent line of work. Together they will reflect, design and build a reinterpretation of the performance open to the public.
Performace MAKA Lisbon | 22/10/2020
Maka in Kimbundu means conversation, an exchange of ideas and arguments: an almost discussion. Initially, the acronym MAKA stood for Lisbon Museum of African Art and Kulture. However, as museums are often deposits of spoils of war, looting and other forms of oppression, the concept evolved to Momento de Arte e Kultura Africana de Lisboa.
Thus, MAKA Lisboa is a constructive conversation about the racially motivated murder of actor Bruno Candé, in order to understand his work and his presence, and how his death is a huge loss for everyone. Humanity has lost. Racism exists and we cannot continue to discuss whether this was a racist act. MAKA Lisboa is Afro-futuristic and works in the territory of positive construction. Think about how you can build after this tragedy and raise and give visibility to the legacy of this actor.
The first lesson that an African father in the diaspora teaches his son is: "you will not be a martyr." This installation is then dedicated to Bruno Candé and his 3 children.
MAKA Lisboa is a project by Francisco Vidal and Namalimba Coelho, whose performance in the context of the Imminent Festival and Underdogs Gallery is now replicated at maat, in an adapted version.
find the article: https://www.maat.pt/en/event/workshop-francisco-vidal
the artist’s instagram
HOW I WORK: ARTIST FRANCISCO VIDAL
For an artist whose work talks about colonialism and mass production, Francisco Vidal’s choice of studio – a former bomb factory in Lisbon’s Oeiras suburb – seems highly charged.
The Lisbon-born artist, who is of Angolan and Cape Verdean descent, views himself as a machine and his studio as a workshop.
Photography: Rodrigo Cardoso | from: THE SPACES
Article from THE SPACES - Nov 2015
For an artist whose work talks about colonialism and mass production, Francisco Vidal’s choice of studio – a former bomb factory in Lisbon’s Oeiras suburb – seems highly charged.
The Lisbon-born artist, who is of Angolan and Cape Verdean descent, views himself as a machine and his studio as a workshop. It’s inside this cavernous space that he produced the vivid machete paintings – referencing the cotton region of Baixa de Cassanje and the bloody events that kick-started Angola’s fight for political freedom – that form the backbone of his upcoming show: Workshop Maianga Mutamba.
Ahead of the exhibition at London’s Tiwani Contemporary, we thought it fitting to see where his works were ‘manufactured’. Vidal – who represented Angola at Venice Biennale in 2015 – led us on a tour of his studio.
One of Vidal’s machete paintings, which feature brightly coloured cotton flowers. Photography: Rodrigo Cardoso | from: THE SPACES
Tell us about the history of the building?
Francisco Vidal: First it was a foundry – they made ovens, freezers and metal appliances here. When the colonial war in Angola started, they began making shells for napalm bombs. They did that through the 1960s and 70s.
I actually grew up in Oeiras, and when I was a kid in the 1980s here, the factory was no longer working. Instead it was a skate park and we’d play there. Hip hop, punk and hardcore [artists] would do concerts… It was a cultural space.
Is there a deliberate parallel between the themes of your work – the artist as a worker, and Angola’s relationship with Portugal – and your own studio space?
Definitely. The first time I painted in this space was 10 years ago: I was at school, I was 26 and I discovered that bombs and arms were made here for the colonial war. I asked my mother and father about the war, I focused on these questions and this trauma and I incorporated those ideas into my work.
Installation view of Vidal’s exhibition Workshop Maianga Mutamba, on display at Tiwani Contemporary in London. Photography: Rosella Degori / The Spaces | from: THE SPACES
Now I’m here again, at the same factory, and I know I had this line of thinking because of the space.
But the most important thing is that this vast, beautiful space could be really productive. It could be studios for artists and a school for kids from the city. We’re in peace now, and that is more important than its past…
Photography: Rodrigo Cardoso | from: THE SPACES
How do you use the physical characteristics of the factory to shape your work?
Firstly, it’s shaped my thinking: I think in series, as a line of production. I use the ‘process’ of the building, I even number my paintings, as you’ll see.
The factory is a huge space and I’m learning to use its scale and physical properties. The light here is particularly beautiful, and the floor space is enormous.
The ceilings are pretty incredible…
They are. I use them as a sort of ‘suspended canvas’. I’m learning to ‘scale-up’ my work.
Photography: Rodrigo Cardoso | from: THE SPACES
Tell us about your gallery-in-a-box, ‘U.topia Luanda Machine’.
Every culture can understand a cube. I made these cubes so I can put my studio inside them and ship it – but they can also be reconfigured to make a wall or table [or pyramid, below]. They can create a gallery space.
The Utopia part references the ‘dream’ studio – you can export yourself to another location and work. It also works like a machine: it’s a toolkit [for mass-producing] screen-prints, and it thinks about the industrial revolution still to happen in Angola.
In Luanda we need art schools, galleries and museums – [‘U.topia Luanda Machine’] produces that because when you can make walls, you can create these spaces.
What’s the best thing about your studio?
Its potential. What its future can be – it could be an art school, like the Tate, which was an industrial space too. That’s the best part of working here, thinking how it could become something constructive to society. We’re working on trying to make it into a museum or a cultural space. We’d love to do that.
find the article: https://contemporaryand.com/person/francisco-vidal/
the artist‘s instagram
Photography: Rodrigo Cardoso | from: THE SPACES
Francisco Vidal: The Machine and the dream of Utopia
Francisco Vidal’s current practice revisits the modernist idea of technology as central to the dream of utopia, represented by the machine.
Tiwani Contemporary will present a site-specific installation by Vidal, produced using his utopia machine: a standard-size plywood box containing an all-in-one toolkit for the mass production of screen prints, also functioning as a papermaking device.
Francisco Vidal during this artistic Residency at Wozen 2017 - image: Lucca Miranda
Francisco Vidal was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1978 and currently lives and works in Lisbon.
In 2010, he received his MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts, New York following the Maumaus Independent Study Program from Maumaus School of Visual Arts, Lisbon, Portugal in 2005 and a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the School of Art and Design, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, in 2002. He feels African even though he was not born on the continent and is a product of the African diaspora in Portugal. Francisco has been working on drawings, sculpture, and installation pieces to create a universe that is not easily classified, but whose continuity reflects his viewpoint and his development as a person. His works, in various formats, are the outcome of increasingly meticulous reflection on the reality he lives in. In parallel with his own practice as a painter, Vidal has played an instrumental role in fostering the visual arts scene in Luanda. In 2012, along with Rita GT, Antonio Ole and Nelo Texeira, he founded e-studio Luanda, a Luanda-based artists’ collective, project space, and studio complex that holds regular exhibitions and runs an art education program.
Francisco Vidal’s current practice revisits the modernist idea of technology as central to the dream of utopia, represented by the machine. Tiwani Contemporary will present a site-specific installation by Vidal, produced using his utopia machine: a standard-size plywood box containing an all-in-one toolkit for the mass production of screen prints, also functioning as a papermaking device.
Joined together, these paper tiles form a modular canvas, a cardboard skin that can cover infinite surfaces. The machine was born of a response to Vidal’s own experience of migration and the challenges faced by the modern, itinerant artist. In parallel with Francisco Vidal’s practice as a painter, he has played an instrumental role in fostering the visual arts scene in Luanda. Vidal is one of the most singular artistic voices to have recently emerged from Angola, and his work was part of the official selection for the Angolan Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.
find the article: https://contemporaryand.com/person/francisco-vidal/
Francisco Vidal at Wozen Residency photo: Maju
Black Forest: a process of João JAS energetic alignment
Floresta Negra | JAS Exhibition
Floresta negra surge de uma forma precoce no sentido de tentar resolver uma ansiedade que permanecia constante. O ataque formou um disparo mais primitivo onde os pincéis deixam de ter importância e o gesto passa a sair diretamente de um tubo de tinta espessa e melada para um suporte áspero e castanho que simboliza a terra ou as cascas de uma árvore.
Black forest arose as a nascent way to solve a permeating anxiety. The attack formed a more primitive shot where the brushes no longer matter. The gesture starts to come straight out of a thick and honeyed ink tube to a rough and brown support that symbolizes the earth or the bark of a tree.
O objetivo passa por uma experiência semelhante a uma oração visual de repetição e organização modular, cujos elementos utilizam a tração e a compressão de forma a proporcionar uma estabilidade e resistência.
The objective goes through an experience similar to a visual prayer of repetition and modular organization, whose elements use traction and compression in order to provide stability and resistance.
Exposição Individual de João Alexandrino Aka JAS | photo: Bruno Contin
Floresta Negra de JAS | photo: José Fernandes
Floresta Negra | JAS Exhibition
“O Mundo muda a pintura muda também” | “When the world changes, painting changes too”
“Habitar um espaço pandêmico onde o ar da rua parece irrespirável, onde sair para a rua se torna uma espécie de crime ... o sentimento de dúvida prolonga-se na memória. A Clausura tornou-se constante. Lá fora, tudo fica quente e irregular. Este é o momento de decretar a quarentena obrigatória, estamos a começar a viver uma guerra invisível, um estado entre a dúvida e a verdade.
“To inhabit a pandemic space where the air outside seems unbreathable, where going out to the streets becomes a kind of crime … the feeling of doubt lingers in the memory. The enclosure became constant. Out there, everything turns hot and irregular. This is the time of mandatory quarantine; we are starting to live an invisible war, a state between doubt and truth.
Estávamos convencidos de que a contenção das grandes epidemias que assolaram o mundo há um século foi uma conquista adquirida, mas essa premissa foi lançada por terra pela crise decorrente da pandemia provocada pelo vírus Covid-19. Fomos para a guerra lutar contra um inimigo invisível, extremamente mortal, e, pela primeira vez, uma batalha em que todas as nações estão do mesmo lado.
We were convinced that the containment of the great epidemics that plagued the world a century ago was an acquired achievement, but this premise was vanquished by the crisis resulting from the pandemic caused by the virus Covid-19. We were at war fighting against an invisible enemy, extremely deadly, and, for the first time: a battle in which all nations are on the same side.
Sacudir a sociedade. Foi-nos oferecido tempo para tudo, até mesmo para olharmos para nós mesmos e para os que olham para nos. Quando as pessoas perguntaram: Como é que passaste a quarentena? Eu respondia que era mais do mesmo! Nada mudou, exceto o meu contato social com amigos e familiares. Afinal, queremos reaprender a viver, e não esquecer que “vai dar tudo certo, mas nada será como antes”. No entanto, percebi que minha vida é baseada numa estrutura de compreensão constante. O tempo para mim permaneceu o mesmo, a ocupação era escassa e o tempo livre ainda não existia como existia para outras pessoas que não sabiam o que fazer.
To shake up society. We have been given time for everything, even to look at ourselves and at those who are looking at us. When people asked: how did you spend the quarantine? I answered that it was more of the same! Nothing changed, a part of my social contact with friends and family. After all, we want to relearn to live, and never forget that “everything will be fine, but nothing will be as before”. I realized that my life is based on a structure of constant comprehension. Time for me remained the same, my occupations were scarce: free time did not yet exist as it existed for other people who did not know what to do.
Floresta negra surge de uma forma precoce no sentido de tentar resolver uma ansiedade que permanecia constante. O ataque formou um disparo mais primitivo onde os pincéis deixam de ter importância e o gesto passa a sair diretamente de um tubo de tinta espessa e melada para um suporte áspero e castanho que simboliza a terra ou as cascas de uma árvore.
Black forest arose as a nascent way to solve a permeating anxiety. The attack formed a more primitive shot where the brushes no longer matter. The gesture starts to come straight out of a thick and honeyed ink tube to a rough and brown support that symbolizes the earth or the bark of a tree.
Floresta Negra I, II, III: oil on canvas
O objetivo passa por uma experiência semelhante a uma oração visual de repetição e organização modular, cujos elementos utilizam a tração e a compressão de forma a proporcionar uma estabilidade e resistência. Florestas negras funcionam como mandalas, ou acordes que esvoaçam ondas energéticas que se alternam em diferentes sensações estabelecendo uma analogia com a tensegridade, onde neurónios motores e neurónios sensitivos se complementam mutuamente, assim como as cúpulas geodésicas atribuindo a grande característica de estabilidade e resistência mecânica.
The objective goes through an experience similar to a visual prayer of repetition and modular organization, whose elements use traction and compression in order to provide stability and resistance. Black forests work as mandalas, or chords that flutter energetic waves that alternate in different sensations establishing an analogy with tensegrity, where motor neurons and sensory neurons complement each other, like geodesic domes, attributing the great characteristic of stability and mechanical resistance.
Estas Florestas são contextualizadas como medição para um caminho mais leve, talvez ansiolíticos do quotidiano.”
These Forests are contextualized as a measure for a lighter, perhaps anxiolytic path of everyday life.”
JAS
Floresta Negra | JAS Exhibition - photo: Bruno Contin