The contemporary world is marked by a constant acceleration. Communication technologies enable a voluminous flow of information at speeds never before seen. New scales of time measurement are created so as to allow for a numerical comprehension of that which human perception cannot visually grasp. Nanoseconds and picoseconds are part of a technical vocabulary which is disseminated in our daily lives, and are so abstract as to become a metaphor for pace of life, and for the passing of minutes, hours, days[1].
Fernanda Valadares offers us the exact opposite of this. Her work requires time. It requires a sensitized eye, and the whole body to stop. Whether starting from broad horizons or constructed planes, the artist invites us to slow down our pace, to listen to the silence, and to try to understand why the notion of sublime no longer seems to make sense today. It only seems that way.
In the series Himalayas, we travel through mountain ranges in a made-up continent. In this particular geography, reality and fiction transpose each other, and fullness and vastness meet. In the work of Fernanda, it is unimportant to know the exact location of such monumental landscapes. The details render its mountains both familiar and unique. It is a place which exists for the artist and for those who indulge in the moment of perception, a place where all the virtualization of today materializes itself, and where its materiality triggers memories of an existing natural architecture - an absolute and sublime space.
From this seventh continent, from this mental state, other possibilities emerge. The silence herein speaks, and communication occurs through infra-language[2]. Meanings are not fixed but moving from one reference to another, letting the images speak for themselves, allowing for exchanges at each meeting. Much like Fernanda, who shows us space in order to talk about time. And by speaking of time she makes us experience it, for only this way can we experience her work.
Even when the artist represents internal spaces, such as 23°35'17S 46°38'13"W and 23°34'15"S 46°42'18"W, gaps prevail and that which is not present emerges. The large format and the absence of color leave room for reflection and contemplation. For Fernanda, emptiness is not the same as nothingness. She abstracts noises and configures possibilities in that which is visible.
In this imaginary continent, the seconds widen. And in its mental map - in which time is the main dimension - the oneiric allows us to transcend form and technique, into matters bordering metaphysics and (why not?) politics. So that through the physical immersion in the work and in the poetic thought of the artist, one can understand another way of dealing with contemporary reality, seeking a way of living in this world which goes beyond the compressed Nanoseconds and picoseconds, towards a simpler and more affectionate existence. And so that this constant stream of images can decelerate until we are able to stop in time. And so that, even when faced with the weight of this mass of information - visual or otherwise - one can breathe with greater lightness. Because it is from this sense of lightness that we can, by contrast[3], understand the weight of each object, action, thought, atom.
Thinking about that weight is critical to Fernanda, someone who is continuously arched into the matter to melt layers of wax. Even though she may see herself as a painter, and may have encaustic as her primary means of support, this exhibition provides an immersion into a much larger universe. Wood and paper in their condition of matter acquire a symbolic load, showing us an artist of complex and expressive poetic reflection. Here there are layers to be uncovered. In this seventh continent, subtly delineated on the tip of graphite, there are no limits or boundaries. All are possibilities.
Bruna Fetter
[1] VIRILIO, Paul. Negative Horizon: An Essay in Dromoscopy. Continuum Publishing, 2006, p. 227
[2] LATOUR, Bruno. Social Reassembling. An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Salvador : Edufba, 2012; Bauru, Sao Paulo: Edusc, 2012. 400 pages.
[3] CALVINO, Italo. Six proposals for the next millennium: American lessons / Italo Calvino : translation by Ivo Barroso - São Paulo : Companhia das Letras, 1990.