A leap in the dark and tales of shadows
"[shadows] are always companions, joined to the bodies." (Leonardo da Vinci, undated)[1]
A sum of opposing forces seems to underpin Celina Portella's process in Subtrações [Subtractions]. The idea of an equation suggested by the title does not, however, lead to a definitive final result. As a common denominator in the series, the black paint that invades the images gains distinct forms and functions: sometimes it appears as a dense and distorted volume; sometimes as a rigid drawing of geometric structures. The body of the artist also assumes a variety of roles, intercalating situations of expansion and containment when interacting with the black mass painted on the photos.
In this final equation, there is no single possible equilibrium. We can find moments of greater balance like in the photo installation Em Contraste [In Contrast], in which she seems to be able to contain the invasion of the block of paint on an image of herself within the frame; and others with no sign of support or permanence. This is the case in the self-portraits with basic geometric shapes (circle, square, and triangle), where the absence of spatial referents creates an effect of imminent fall, as in the very notion of a chasm between two times, which is characteristic of photography.
Throughout the last decade, Celina has been using the body to deal with the dilemmas of representation and to question the supposed transparency of the devices that mediate the real. Her artistic output develops in parallel to contemporary dance, which explains much of her interest in movement and bodily limits in relation to both space and image. In previous works, as in the video installation Derrube [Pushover] (2009), the notion of the double, another premise in photography, is questioned through the artist's action to destroy her own projection by striking the wall that serves as a medium. A similar feature was also used in Movimientos Detenidos [Detained Movements] (2008), an action in the urban space held in Valparaíso, Chile, in which she moves around the city and leaves images of her own body printed on the walls.
It is worth thinking of these two examples as an introduction to processes that the artist takes up in the new works. The clearest example is the relationship to the idea of shadow. Although not so clear as in the previous projections - which actually deal with the interaction between the object-body and its most elemental form of representation - the shadows suggested here are opaque, they have a very different material weight than the ghostly form of the contour, which characterize them. However, the principle here in relation to the images is similar - it is through these dense dark layers that they become distinguished, forming situations that only exist through the interaction between the visible and the hidden layers.
Shadow is also a common point in the original processes of image representation. In their early days, both painting and photography sought to materialize the contour projected from an object. From the earliest primitive paintings at Lascaux, created by masking using a coloured powder, this was already a procedure of subtraction from the outline, "a shadow as a negative, an unpainted paining ("it was blown on top of"), obtained by subtraction", as defined by Philippe Dubois in L'Acte photographique et autres essais.[2] However, it was only with the invention of photography that in fact it became possible to capture shadow in real time.
By mixing both techniques, Celina seems to seek an approximation between them through the use of shadows. The self-portrait is significant in this process. If the body as a missing object was one of the changes brought by photography - previously, with the techniques that preceded photography, such as the camera obscura, the body had to be inside the device for the projection to happen - its images seem to prevent this disappearance. Even though sometimes oppressed, bodies are present almost as an act of resistance; the most truthful index.
Nathalia Lavigne
[1] Leonardo da Vinci, MS 2038, French National Library (Folios 21, 22, 29, 30). Quote in Dubois, Philippe; L'Acte photographique et autres essais, Nathan, 1993.
[2] Ibid., p. 116.
