Page 127 - ARTE!Brasileiros #37

EXHIBITION SÃO PAULO | PAGES 70 TO 72 new kind of sanitation that monitors whether you are at your
ideal weight, if your hair is looking right, among other things,”
I POST, THEREFORE I AM says the artist. Garments also appear in the work Coisas para
Comprar (Things to buy) which consists of tags of several
products, as the artist explains: “I usually say that we are living
IN A MAJOR EXHIBITION AT TOMIE OHTAKE, LEDA CATUNDA SHOWS the end of capitalism because now it’s a time when things are
UNPUBLISHED WORKS THAT INVESTIGATE CONSUMPTION AND SELF- totally out of control. In this work, different references are seen
IMAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD such as Nivea cream, Advil, and Revista Poder (a magazine).
It doesn’t matter if it is something expensive or cheap, if it is
for the hair or for the body. The phenomenon of the behavior
BY MARIANA TESSITORE associated with consumerism is a situation from which no one
escapes anymore.”
SELFIES OF A COUPLE in their trip to California, pictures All these different objects are sewed together. This technique
of a surfer in the seas of Bali, images of a girl’s nails with her can be seen in the artist’s work since the beginning of her
soccer team logo manicured. These photos, traces of intimacy, production, in an allusion to craft and popular culture. Unlike
could be on a Facebook timeline. But they are found on the some of the artists of her generation such as Iran do Espírito
latest works of artist Leda Catunda, displayed in her exhibition Santo and Ana Maria Tavares, who make use of materials like
I Love You Baby at Instituto Tomie Ohtake. With curatorship of granite, glass, metal or stone, Catunda says she always opted
Paulo Miyada, the exhibition displays about a hundred works for an aesthetic that she defines as “precarious” and that
of the artist - paintings, collages, prints, drawings, and objects. suggest an everyday art. Engaging in sewing lead Catunda’s
In I Love You Baby , the artist from São Paulo continues to work to be related to the feminine universe. The artist does
investigate the theme of taste and its relation with identity and not deny such association, but points out the complexity of
consumerism. The concept has been around since her earliest the subject: “I studied with the boys of Casa Sete (a group
works until her last solo show held in 2015 at Galpão Fortes formed by Nuno Ramos, Paulo Monteiro, Fábio Miguez, Carlito
Vilaça. In the current exhibition, however, Catunda begins to Carvalhosa and Rodrigo Andrade) whose painting were full of

deal with the impact of the internet and the social media in the paint, very thick , very “expressionist”. And I find it curious
everyday life. In the artwork whose title names the exhibition, that, as I sewed, people used to say that my art was feminine.
for example, Catunda presents a collage of images found on Conversely, nobody used to ask the boys: Is your art masculine?
Google after typing the words “love” and “romance.” “Those I felt that there was an attitude of depreciation that reinforced
images of a couple “hooking up” reveals a little about the that, once I am a woman, my art should necessarily deal with
exacerbated exposure that we have allowed in our own love feminine issues”
lives.” commented the artist. The sewing that gathers different elements together also
Still talking about the impact of the new technologies, Catunda
says: “When you look at the pictures of the beginning of the transmits an affectionate view of the artist toward the materials
that make up her works, as pointed out by Miyada: “Catunda’s
20th century, people are not laughing, they are just as the
photographer requested. Today, everybody knows what’s their work appropriates these elements and sometimes leads you
best angle. It is also possible to simply delete a picture and to laugh, sometimes leads you to a feeling of estrangement,
take another one, more favorable The idea of you editing your but never allows you to be distant, to judge. And that is very
.
own image is something that interests me as an artist.” This important - at the pace the world is today, if we stay in a
perspective focusing on the public behavior is a constant theme discursive and protective position, we miss the ability to
in Catunda’s production. Belonging to the so-called Geração apprehend the whirlwind of changes taking place and end
80 (Generation 1980’s), that widened the concepts of painting, up pigeonholing everything”. The artist states: “This fierce
Leda Catunda began her career producing lithographs that flow of images reveals a lot about the human soul because
made allusion to TV images. Subsequently, her work became everyone seeks a sense of comfort. If you are feeling pretty,
less narrative and more attentive to some structural issues. if you are loving, or cheering or going to a Metallica concert,
The use of everyday objects - such as towels, carpets, plastics in a certain way, it reassures you. Capitalism is a very cruel
and T-shirts - has become a central feature in the artist’s system that excludes people. People crave to be included when
.
oeuvre The artist herself jokes that her work can be defined they are accessing these images.” “I want to understand why
as “housework”. the public is specifically interested in certain types of images,
For the works displayed in this solo exhibition, Catunda I find that very attractive, once it is not rational. It’s something
appropriates photo posted on social networks for herself that messes with our desires, and desires are not practical at
deconstructing their meaning, as explained by Miyada: “Catunda all, quite the opposite. Desires makes us work hard.”mar linda
works with an universe of images, materials, symbols, and (2016), leda catunda. Acrilic
logotypes that people systematically produce and consume
to create their own images. All this is shown in the exhibition 1 | MAR LINDA, ACRILIC ON FABRIC AND VOAL
as these elements are appropriated, mixed, recombined in
Catunda’s work, without any purification or cleaning, keeping 2 | MORUMBI (2014), LEDA CATUNDA, ACRILIC ON CANVAS AND FABRIC
their characteristics, which sometimes are tacky , exaggerated
or appealing”. 3 | COISAS II (2016), LEDA CATUNDA
Clothes, in particular, are a type of material in which the artist
is interested: not just as symbols of status and belonging, but Leda Catunda – I Love You Baby
also as they reveal the tenuous notions between what would be Until January 15, 2017
a good or a bad taste. Several of the works have patterns that Instituto Tomie Ohtake
were taken from surf and rock bands t-shirts and, especially, Coropés St., 88 - Pinheiros, São Paulo, SP
sportswear to allude to “the image of the perfect body, a 55 11 22 45 1900

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