ARTFORUM
Maio/May 2013
 |
| View of “f.marquespenteado”, 2013 |
Wooden boards (similar to those used
in temporary construction sites), some painted pink, were placed over the white
walls of the gallery, creating a uniform base for the works included in f.
maquespenteado’s recent exhibition “Denominador Comum” (Common Denominator).
This artist’s work takes in, welcomes, and renews objects that have been
abandoned or rejected (as a function of the logic of accelerated turnover of
consumption) or that were bequeathed to us as legacies of experience we cannot
share. He is particularly drawn to the world of textiles, to activities such as
sewing, darning, weaving, dyeing, and so on – practices involving manual labor
that is intense, artisanal, and sometimes anachronistic in terms of present-day
demands of productivity. These are modes often considered “minor” and linked to
the feminine, domestic, “poor”, “not modern.”
Humble objects that we might find in
the street, in the garbage, or in the attics of those no longer with us are the
materials used in many of marquespenteado’s works. O descanso da guerreira (Warrior’s Rest), 2003/2012, combines a
Formica chair and a small embroidered pillow. Refúgio distante (Distante Refuge), 2012, brings together sponges,
images of castles and old country houses, book covers, rock salt, shells, and
pottery. A cutlery box, found in the trash and displaying all the painstaking
workmanship of traditional cabinetmaking, houses silks and hand-embroidered PVC
(Sala de jantar [Dining
Room], 2011). On the table holding these works, a wall clock was frozen in time
(Tempo suspenso às 10.32 [Time
Stopped at 10.32], 2011).
Handkerchiefs the artist inherited
from his mother and a huge collection of hand embroidery received from a woman
afflicted with Alzheimer’s are among the materials used in the composition of
the most salient textiles in this exhibition. The series “ ‘Malaise’ neo-concretista” (Neo-concretist “Malaise”), 2011 – linens,
cottons, and wools embroidered on industrial felt – alludes to the tradition of
geometrical abstraction, proceeding to a subversion and inversion of its
values: Flatness gives way to the sensuality and density of the materials,
rigid delineation of forms to the hesitation and imperfection of the weaves,
the immaculate uniformity of colors to the accident and nuances of
hand-tinting. Geometry yields to the sensitive depiction of skin, fingers and
hands.
Beyond textiles and other readymades,
painting also had its place in the exhibition. In the series “Desenho Pivotante” (Dust Jackets), 2004,
the artist represents, on the backs of old book covers, figures and situations
inspired solely by reading the summary of the book on its flaps: Each unknown
story opens the possibility of multiple other stories. But whether dealing with
modest, discarded items or beautiful handkerchiefs and needlework that are the
product of hundreds of hours of meticulous labor but that no one wants any
longer, the artist’s goal is to restore the value to feelings associated with
that which was rejected, to give a home to what was abandoned and excludes. The
“common denominator” that concerns him is the mark of the human condition that
we share with others and with everything we touch. Perhaps that’s why
marquespenteado writes his name without capital letters and without any
identification of sex: to be in midst of others in a state of complete
equality.
.. ................................................
