Read de full text by Miguel Chaia here
Contratempo [Setback] presents a series of new works created from 2011 onward, which are unfolded in drawings, photographs, sculptures, videos and installations. Made initially as distinct works, they nevertheless weave among themselves a unique discourse that reaffirms the question of the conflict between nature and civilization, a recurring theme in the artist’s oeuvre. The body arises once again as an element for the questioning of everyday imperatives.
Vulnerable to the multiple indications of direction, Contratempo reveals the repressed individual in search of escape. This idea appears in the installation Curva de Jardim [Garden Curve], 2013, created by Chaia for Vermelho’s façade, and which reappears miniaturized in the gallery’s Hall 2. Created with modules of bent iron, mounted side-by-side to form a fence, Curva de Jardim restricts the mobility of the visitors, therefore determining their movements and their understanding of the exhibition as a whole.
Similar content appears in Lança [Spear], 2013. Installed in the gallery’s entrance hall, the collage reproduces iron gratings in the form of sharp spears. Chaia uses the original design of these objects, normally used in houses and buildings as a form of protection against not-always-welcome presences, as a way of questioning their effectiveness.
Alambrado [Wire Fence], 2011–2013, uses mesh fencing likewise used to protect properties, though here the wire mesh and the hardness of the metal are transformed into a malleable network. Thus, the function of the protective fence – to exclude – is brought into question.
Chaia’s keen perception of the chaotic urban scene reemerges in Escrita [Writing], 2013. This installation, composed of electrical wires manipulated by the artist, recalls the typical graffiti “tagging” seen on walls in the city of São Paulo. Electrical wires reappear in the series of photographs Fiação [Wiring], 2012–2013. Above these photographic images that recall the tangle of wires often seen on electrical power poles in the city of São Paulo, Chaia presents images of a gray sky, scratched with a printmaker’s drypoint and cut by electrical wires. This series has a gloomy light and emphasizes the emptiness and fragility of the urban scenario.
In the works Folha-leito [Leaf-Bed] and A queda [The Fall], 2013, photography is used as a documental instrument, creating a commentary on the passage of time that points to the fleetingness of the human and the organic. In Quadrada, 2013, green leaves lose their organic outlines, acquiring right angles, indicating the innate versatility of every organism to adapt itself to the logic of living together with its environment.
The solo show is capped off with the video Aleph, 2013. Recorded in one of the various barren regions in the city of São Paulo, the video overlays the downtown to the city’s periphery, as it appears in a small glass sphere that slides on a woman’s arm.
In her artistic practice, Lia Chaia operates with paradoxes, blending poetic power with a tragic view of the world. Constantly rearticulating her themes and prioritizing new researches involving language, Lia Chaia offers a critical and simultaneously political look at current circumstances.
Read de full text by Miguel Chaia here
Contratempo [Setback] presents a series of new works created from 2011 onward, which are unfolded in drawings, photographs, sculptures, videos and installations. Made initially as distinct works, they nevertheless weave among themselves a unique discourse that reaffirms the question of the conflict between nature and civilization, a recurring theme in the artist’s oeuvre. The body arises once again as an element for the questioning of everyday imperatives.
Vulnerable to the multiple indications of direction, Contratempo reveals the repressed individual in search of escape. This idea appears in the installation Curva de Jardim [Garden Curve], 2013, created by Chaia for Vermelho’s façade, and which reappears miniaturized in the gallery’s Hall 2. Created with modules of bent iron, mounted side-by-side to form a fence, Curva de Jardim restricts the mobility of the visitors, therefore determining their movements and their understanding of the exhibition as a whole.
Similar content appears in Lança [Spear], 2013. Installed in the gallery’s entrance hall, the collage reproduces iron gratings in the form of sharp spears. Chaia uses the original design of these objects, normally used in houses and buildings as a form of protection against not-always-welcome presences, as a way of questioning their effectiveness.
Alambrado [Wire Fence], 2011–2013, uses mesh fencing likewise used to protect properties, though here the wire mesh and the hardness of the metal are transformed into a malleable network. Thus, the function of the protective fence – to exclude – is brought into question.
Chaia’s keen perception of the chaotic urban scene reemerges in Escrita [Writing], 2013. This installation, composed of electrical wires manipulated by the artist, recalls the typical graffiti “tagging” seen on walls in the city of São Paulo. Electrical wires reappear in the series of photographs Fiação [Wiring], 2012–2013. Above these photographic images that recall the tangle of wires often seen on electrical power poles in the city of São Paulo, Chaia presents images of a gray sky, scratched with a printmaker’s drypoint and cut by electrical wires. This series has a gloomy light and emphasizes the emptiness and fragility of the urban scenario.
In the works Folha-leito [Leaf-Bed] and A queda [The Fall], 2013, photography is used as a documental instrument, creating a commentary on the passage of time that points to the fleetingness of the human and the organic. In Quadrada, 2013, green leaves lose their organic outlines, acquiring right angles, indicating the innate versatility of every organism to adapt itself to the logic of living together with its environment.
The solo show is capped off with the video Aleph, 2013. Recorded in one of the various barren regions in the city of São Paulo, the video overlays the downtown to the city’s periphery, as it appears in a small glass sphere that slides on a woman’s arm.
In her artistic practice, Lia Chaia operates with paradoxes, blending poetic power with a tragic view of the world. Constantly rearticulating her themes and prioritizing new researches involving language, Lia Chaia offers a critical and simultaneously political look at current circumstances.
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