Lia Chaia’s video production began during her years as an art student at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, FAAP, (São Paulo, Brazil) and has continued until today as a constant in her production. From the robust body of works by the artist in this media, Galeria Vermelho is presenting here a selection of 18 video works in chronological order
Chaia’s use of this media goes back to the beginning of video art in Brazil between the late 1960s and early 1970s, when access to portable cameras began in this country with the Portapak cameras that were brought from abroad. These were battery-powered cameras that could be carried by a single person, unlike the cameras used up to then by television, which were large and, therefore, had reduced mobility. The portability introduced by the Portapak allowed for recordings to be made outside of studios and therefore with less planning, thus permitting more experimentation. The cameras also allowed for the recording of contestation performance videos filmed in private situations within a context ruled by oppressive censoring and a military dictatorship.
Lia Chaia’s camera also witness experiments the artist carries out with the body. She shoots her scenes with predominantly static and/ or sequential takes that reinforce the experience lived within the situation recorded as a main content of the works, always with her own constitution in clashing with the surroundings. Body and surroundings are translated into nature and construction, the primitive and the engineered – an opposition that is present in her own artistic practice, in a confrontation between Lia Chaia and the recording device.
By comparing the works chronologically, we can perceive the influences of the rapid technological advance of the video cameras in Chaia’s production. With the development of the devices, the artist has introduced formal concerns in the elaboration of her footage, as we can observe in 2010, with Glam and in 2013 with Piscina [Pool] and Aleph. With Aleph, we have the first action not realized by the artist herself in one of her videos. This time Chaia remains behind the camera, recording the action executed by Fabíola Salles under her direction.
In 2015, Lia Chaia produced the video Para GB [For GB], an homage to GeraldodeBarros. There, Chaia once again takes her body as an instrument in an action recorded in a private context, approaching the poetics of the honored artist and re-approaching a primitive element of her production.
Bolas [Balls], from 2016, assumes another characteristic of Lia’s artwork, recording her walk through the city during a performance, as noted by Priscyla Gomes in her text on the exhibition É como dançar sobre a artquitetura, held by Chaia at Instituto Tomie Ohtake in 2016: “The video Bolas records the path of the artist’s body greatly enlarged by the accumulation of balls, referring to the comic actions of a clown and lending the body-pedestrian a certain spontaneity, humor and protection.”
Lia Chaia’s video production began during her years as an art student at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, FAAP, (São Paulo, Brazil) and has continued until today as a constant in her production. From the robust body of works by the artist in this media, Galeria Vermelho is presenting here a selection of 18 video works in chronological order
Chaia’s use of this media goes back to the beginning of video art in Brazil between the late 1960s and early 1970s, when access to portable cameras began in this country with the Portapak cameras that were brought from abroad. These were battery-powered cameras that could be carried by a single person, unlike the cameras used up to then by television, which were large and, therefore, had reduced mobility. The portability introduced by the Portapak allowed for recordings to be made outside of studios and therefore with less planning, thus permitting more experimentation. The cameras also allowed for the recording of contestation performance videos filmed in private situations within a context ruled by oppressive censoring and a military dictatorship.
Lia Chaia’s camera also witness experiments the artist carries out with the body. She shoots her scenes with predominantly static and/ or sequential takes that reinforce the experience lived within the situation recorded as a main content of the works, always with her own constitution in clashing with the surroundings. Body and surroundings are translated into nature and construction, the primitive and the engineered – an opposition that is present in her own artistic practice, in a confrontation between Lia Chaia and the recording device.
By comparing the works chronologically, we can perceive the influences of the rapid technological advance of the video cameras in Chaia’s production. With the development of the devices, the artist has introduced formal concerns in the elaboration of her footage, as we can observe in 2010, with Glam and in 2013 with Piscina [Pool] and Aleph. With Aleph, we have the first action not realized by the artist herself in one of her videos. This time Chaia remains behind the camera, recording the action executed by Fabíola Salles under her direction.
In 2015, Lia Chaia produced the video Para GB [For GB], an homage to GeraldodeBarros. There, Chaia once again takes her body as an instrument in an action recorded in a private context, approaching the poetics of the honored artist and re-approaching a primitive element of her production.
Bolas [Balls], from 2016, assumes another characteristic of Lia’s artwork, recording her walk through the city during a performance, as noted by Priscyla Gomes in her text on the exhibition É como dançar sobre a artquitetura, held by Chaia at Instituto Tomie Ohtake in 2016: “The video Bolas records the path of the artist’s body greatly enlarged by the accumulation of balls, referring to the comic actions of a clown and lending the body-pedestrian a certain spontaneity, humor and protection.”