Description:
Two white wooden cabinets, where porcelain fossils of lavender are disposed inside, suspended by strings from bamboo sticks. On the cabinets, a long, rectangular wooden table where three works are arranged. In the first, a small porcelain plate with the inscription “mandar obedecer / caos cataclisma / terramoto / crise” (command obey / chaos cataclysm / earthquake / crisis), laid on a ball of sisal thread, protected by the glass dome from a cake plate. In an odd combination, the objects and senses attract for the fragility, tenderness and lack of visual weight. In the work at the center of the table the porcelain fragments of a fossilized sunflower are arranged, where we see the ripples of the plant and the geometric spaces of the seeds. Lastly, gathered in a small bunch, rosemary and lavender leaves fossilized in porcelain, closely resembling the colors of bones and seashells.
At the base of the cabinets, a small porcelain plate is arranged, with a drawing of a torus, a mathematic representation of a homeomorph topological space.
On the floor, three other works; a gray signal buoy, found on the beach of the Seixal river, used as a boat fender, round shaped, with two holes and a stem for mooring. From a plaster mold of this buoy, two porcelain spheres were made, positioned next to the original buoy.
Lastly, another object found on the beach, an inflatable metallic float, contrasting and shining. At the cushioned center of the float is a pebble, a round stone found on the same beach. These objects are laid on white tracing paper, vertically extended on the wall four meters above the ground.
On the tracing paper, depending on the lighting, it is possible to recognize drawings of maps in gray, white and hollowed out lines. There is a cut off circle on the paper at the same height as the table and the cabinets. Above, also in a vertical position, is the inscription, in hollowed out letters, “os pés contra o chão” ("feet against the ground"). The translucent paper, loose as a curtain about to fly away, stays in place with the weight of the float and the stone.
In this work, all the desire to travel through the surface of the earth as someone who explores the riches of an unknown world is forgotten, there is an erasure. The floats and fossilized organic elements hint to another temporality.
For the reading of each of these inscriptions, it is necessary to take some time, to wait for the shade and the light to create the contrast. The whole set of objects imply floatation and fragility, any bump could sway the work it like a house of cards.
Words, in their transparency, denote a calculated fear of a space of consciousness, in overlapped senses between floatation and suspended temporality.
