WORKS

o jardim da celeste. lugares seguros e demais considerações.

(tr. "o jardim da celeste. safe places and other considerations.")

Art in Forum, Forum Madeira, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal (2024)

At two years old, I scribbled the upholstery of a chair before or after (it may have even happened simultaneously) I also scribbled on my face and hands in an attempt to disguise myself as a clown. The preferred medium was felt-tip pens. I have four pages of an album full of photographs that recorded this moment. Not a scolding, a trauma or a story that my parents find difficult to tell. None of that. I have got images of the happiness and power of a kid with an easy, relaxed smile who believes he invented Abstractionism.

We spend too much time thinking about the darkest scenarios, sewing disguises to avoid our true essence. Everything is “expensive”, “valuable”, “fragile”, “white”. We exist with our hands tied behind our backs. Nowadays, it's rare for me to scribble on chairs, and what a shame that is. (I mean this physically and metaphorically.)

"o jardim da celeste. safe places and other considerations." essentially looks at this lack of freedom that is imposed on us at different times. Sometimes by ourselves, sometimes by “rules of etiquette” that became generalized on no one’s orders. Exhibiting pieces that were created to see and touch, this installation seeks safe places, places of comfort; what they are, what they represent and their importance for a balanced life. Three large assemblages, which use the themes of the children's song O Jardim da Celeste – the recognisable, repetitive, round melody and rhythm, the message of love and sharing, the almost palpable warmth –, guide the audience on a journey that culminates in an invitation to intervene on a fourth “incomplete” piece.