I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the forthcoming exhibition by Ana Maria Pacheco at Wallspace from 8 – 25 October having previously seen exhibitions by her at Birmingham's Gas Hall gallery and at the National Gallery, where she was an Associate Artist. At Wallspace, Pacheco will be showing her dramatic 2-piece work entitled Memória Roubada for the first time.
The powerful and disturbing painted wooden sculptures of Memória Roubada (Stolen Memories) confront ideas of displaced people and severed cultures - results of the colonisation of Brazil. Born in Goiânia in the State of Goiás, Brazil in 1943, Pacheco was studying at University when a military junta had taken over the country and was using death squads to enforce its rule. The pieces here express the obliteration of shared memory, the rape of cultural tradition and the idea of castration of the senses in the domination of a culture in the pursuit of money; the search for gold and more recently, oil.
These pieces are inspired by 'oratories' originating in Portugal and Spain - as domestic locations for private prayer. They also draw on European and Brazilian folklore and elements of West African iconography. This multiplicity of reference is woven of threads ever present in Brazil's multi-ethnic history.
Now based in London, Pacheco is known for her larger than life-sized carved and painted wooden sculptures that seem to have broken free from their specific past, to form dramatic and unsettling contemporary tableaux. In 1996 she was invited to become the fourth Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London; she was both the first non-European and the first sculptor to take up this appointment. Pacheco sculpted Dark Night of The Soul, with its reference to St Sebastian, during this time.
Pacheco is featured artist in Melvyn Bragg's Faith in The Frame ITV 1 series broadcast on 2 November 2008.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Violent Femmes - Jesus Walking On The Water.
No comments:
Post a Comment