Whitefly (silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci, also informally referred to as the sweet potato whitefly) is an insect that feeds on vegetables in general, but mainly attacks soy plantations.
Its control occurs through pesticides or by introducing into the plantation other groups of insects that feed on the eggs left by the fly on the plants, such as the wasp.
In 2018, soy represented 14% of the total value of Brazilian exports. Surpassing all other goods exported by Brazil, soy crops are currently Brazil’s most profitable commodity. Soy plantations are also the main cause of the current situation of deforestation in the Amazon.
The soy plant, which should not be cultivated in the form of extractive monoculture, needs to overcome the whitefly plague so that the agricultural engine can continue to sow the land and reap profits. For this, the whitefly needs to be destroyed. The annihilation of the crop by the action of the plague turns nature into an obstacle to be overcome by man.
Mosca Branca, a new solo show by Henrique Cesar (1987), at Vermelho, highlights the conception of the world based on the simultaneous presence of opposing principles incapable of synthesis that characterize every being that inhabits the planet.
Although there are no works in the exhibition using the name of this type of insect, the whitefly appears as a character in the painting O Homem Velho [The Old Man] (2019), which relates ancestral planting and cultivation practices to stargazing. The painting has two distinct moments. In the lower area of the screen, the fly appears gigantic like a monster. At the top, the artist aligns tiny flies to the spatial design of the group of stars known as the Constellation of the Old Man, creating a parallel with the cosmic way in which these insects organize themselves to devour food.
Mosca Branca has a plurality of works that appear in different supports. They are paintings, drawings, videos, sound pieces and installations that use slurry from organic matter, a biofertilizer residue taken from the compostable waste, pitch, resin, rubber and gas. Several of these works address the idea of force fields, of electromagnetic fields.
Painted with tar, the Profecia Tropical [Tropical Prophecy] series (2019) uses images of 19 palm trees found in Brazil as a strategy to draw a parallel between botany and electromagnetic lines of force.
The palm tree, like any plant, absorbs, reflects and emanates the earth’s vital functions. According to the English physicist Michael Faraday (1791–1867), the lines of force start at one pole of the electromagnetic field and converge towards the other. These lines, invisible to the naked eye, are curved and determine the direction of the electric field and therefore the direction and strength of the magnetic field.
Profecia Tropical suggests that, through such lines of force, it is possible to question the intensity of the electromagnetic fields of a certain internal and external point of the palm trees and, therefore, predict the shape that each plant will develop.
Another important character in Mosca Branca is the vulture. The bird appears in the exhibition portrayed with liquid asphalt on canvas in the work Eneáde (2021), in the Guina (2021) painting on rubber, and also printed on computer and smartphone screens in the work entitled O Urubu e o fungo [The vulture and the fungus] (2021).
Eneáde borrows its title from Egyptian mythology. It is a group of nine deities linked together by family ties. Henrique creates a parallel between the divinity and the vulture, transforming this self-sufficient and self-determined bird into an icon.
The most extensive solo show presented by Henrique Cesar to date, Mosca Branca also features the installations Ouriço, Linha de Fluxo, Colméia and Octênio (2019), with paintings from the series Claustro [Cloister] (2019), Pléiades (2020), Linhas de Força [Powerline], Mirante [Belvedere], Anjo[Angel] and Patriarca [Patriarch] (2019), with the series of drawings Campo Concreto [Campo Concreto] (2019), and Inventário (2020), and with the two channel video Dinâmica da Sobrevida [Dynamics of survival] (2019).
Marcos Gallon Nov 2021
Whitefly (silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci, also informally referred to as the sweet potato whitefly) is an insect that feeds on vegetables in general, but mainly attacks soy plantations.
Its control occurs through pesticides or by introducing into the plantation other groups of insects that feed on the eggs left by the fly on the plants, such as the wasp.
In 2018, soy represented 14% of the total value of Brazilian exports. Surpassing all other goods exported by Brazil, soy crops are currently Brazil’s most profitable commodity. Soy plantations are also the main cause of the current situation of deforestation in the Amazon.
The soy plant, which should not be cultivated in the form of extractive monoculture, needs to overcome the whitefly plague so that the agricultural engine can continue to sow the land and reap profits. For this, the whitefly needs to be destroyed. The annihilation of the crop by the action of the plague turns nature into an obstacle to be overcome by man.
Mosca Branca, a new solo show by Henrique Cesar (1987), at Vermelho, highlights the conception of the world based on the simultaneous presence of opposing principles incapable of synthesis that characterize every being that inhabits the planet.
Although there are no works in the exhibition using the name of this type of insect, the whitefly appears as a character in the painting O Homem Velho [The Old Man] (2019), which relates ancestral planting and cultivation practices to stargazing. The painting has two distinct moments. In the lower area of the screen, the fly appears gigantic like a monster. At the top, the artist aligns tiny flies to the spatial design of the group of stars known as the Constellation of the Old Man, creating a parallel with the cosmic way in which these insects organize themselves to devour food.
Mosca Branca has a plurality of works that appear in different supports. They are paintings, drawings, videos, sound pieces and installations that use slurry from organic matter, a biofertilizer residue taken from the compostable waste, pitch, resin, rubber and gas. Several of these works address the idea of force fields, of electromagnetic fields.
Painted with tar, the Profecia Tropical [Tropical Prophecy] series (2019) uses images of 19 palm trees found in Brazil as a strategy to draw a parallel between botany and electromagnetic lines of force.
The palm tree, like any plant, absorbs, reflects and emanates the earth’s vital functions. According to the English physicist Michael Faraday (1791–1867), the lines of force start at one pole of the electromagnetic field and converge towards the other. These lines, invisible to the naked eye, are curved and determine the direction of the electric field and therefore the direction and strength of the magnetic field.
Profecia Tropical suggests that, through such lines of force, it is possible to question the intensity of the electromagnetic fields of a certain internal and external point of the palm trees and, therefore, predict the shape that each plant will develop.
Another important character in Mosca Branca is the vulture. The bird appears in the exhibition portrayed with liquid asphalt on canvas in the work Eneáde (2021), in the Guina (2021) painting on rubber, and also printed on computer and smartphone screens in the work entitled O Urubu e o fungo [The vulture and the fungus] (2021).
Eneáde borrows its title from Egyptian mythology. It is a group of nine deities linked together by family ties. Henrique creates a parallel between the divinity and the vulture, transforming this self-sufficient and self-determined bird into an icon.
The most extensive solo show presented by Henrique Cesar to date, Mosca Branca also features the installations Ouriço, Linha de Fluxo, Colméia and Octênio (2019), with paintings from the series Claustro [Cloister] (2019), Pléiades (2020), Linhas de Força [Powerline], Mirante [Belvedere], Anjo[Angel] and Patriarca [Patriarch] (2019), with the series of drawings Campo Concreto [Campo Concreto] (2019), and Inventário (2020), and with the two channel video Dinâmica da Sobrevida [Dynamics of survival] (2019).
Marcos Gallon Nov 2021
