Maria Nepomuceno
11 Oct - 08 Nov 2008
MARIA NEPOMUCENO
"AFECTOFLUX"
Following her participation in the group exhibition Connecting Thread, Maria Nepomuceno returns to the Karsten Greve Gallery with her first solo exhibition in France, entitled Afectoflux. With this exhibition she transforms the gallery into a mysterious garden composed of 18 carefully wrought woven sculptures of different sizes, complemented by videos of performances.
Spread out over the floor, Maria Nepomuceno’s sculptures resemble creeping plants, proliferating also over the walls and invading every available support. The artist re-uses elements of our daily lives: sisal rope, nylon or string and different coloured beads. She recovers them from old curtains made for the navy, or for road transport. These objects from the day-to-day world fit into her works of art, over and above and in spite of their symbolic value, to ultimately become the body of it. Recently, Maria Nepomuceno has again started to use materials such as woven straw. This ancient indigenous craft fascinates her for its apparent simplicity, when in fact it is extremely complex.
These elements constitute the fundamental base of these organic assemblages. They create a continuity that is disturbed however by embranchments producing multiple arms, tubes, mouths, flowers and veins; in short, a complete circulatory or organic system. At times concentrated on a unity of form and matter, these configurations suddenly dissolve into a labyrinth of tangled and muddled bodies. The organic entity of the works is such that these groups of sculptures touch one another intimately but preserve their independence. They emerge from a thought process on the complementary movements of flow and retention that are produced inside and outside the body. The fluidity of the spiral obtained in sewing ropes and necklaces together evokes DNA spirals. A circulatory movement of energy governs the sculptures in the same way it does for our bodies, for nature, for the universe and for everything that lives and breathes.
"AFECTOFLUX"
Following her participation in the group exhibition Connecting Thread, Maria Nepomuceno returns to the Karsten Greve Gallery with her first solo exhibition in France, entitled Afectoflux. With this exhibition she transforms the gallery into a mysterious garden composed of 18 carefully wrought woven sculptures of different sizes, complemented by videos of performances.
Spread out over the floor, Maria Nepomuceno’s sculptures resemble creeping plants, proliferating also over the walls and invading every available support. The artist re-uses elements of our daily lives: sisal rope, nylon or string and different coloured beads. She recovers them from old curtains made for the navy, or for road transport. These objects from the day-to-day world fit into her works of art, over and above and in spite of their symbolic value, to ultimately become the body of it. Recently, Maria Nepomuceno has again started to use materials such as woven straw. This ancient indigenous craft fascinates her for its apparent simplicity, when in fact it is extremely complex.
These elements constitute the fundamental base of these organic assemblages. They create a continuity that is disturbed however by embranchments producing multiple arms, tubes, mouths, flowers and veins; in short, a complete circulatory or organic system. At times concentrated on a unity of form and matter, these configurations suddenly dissolve into a labyrinth of tangled and muddled bodies. The organic entity of the works is such that these groups of sculptures touch one another intimately but preserve their independence. They emerge from a thought process on the complementary movements of flow and retention that are produced inside and outside the body. The fluidity of the spiral obtained in sewing ropes and necklaces together evokes DNA spirals. A circulatory movement of energy governs the sculptures in the same way it does for our bodies, for nature, for the universe and for everything that lives and breathes.