Porcelana e vulcão: João Castilho

In his new solo exhibition at Zipper Gallery, artist João Castilho presents a series of new works that continue and deepen his research into concept and form in the field of photography and video. Entitled Porcelana e Vulcão (Porcelain and Volcano), the exhibition also includes sculptures, a recent aspect of his production.

The assembled works gravitate around the ideas emanating from materials and phenomena involving the structures indicated in the title. Oscillating between the lightness and delicacy of porcelain and the weight and fury of the volcano. Between stillness and agitation, between calm and violence, between a small fissure and a large eruption.

The six works indicate a desire to break the present permanence of things and beings in the world. Stagnation is not a stage that can be easily overcome, it is a permanent state. The works in the exhibition carry a kind of annulment, of impasse, of immutable force, as if things had a hard time leaving the state in which they are. As in a swamp. The works present unsolvable problems and attack, in a way, the myth of progress.  

In the photographic installation O Caminho do Samurai (The Samurai's Way, 2015), 92 pictures of varying sizes exhibit cracks and cuts in iron sculptures and other structures. The set of fissures and the high contrast between light and shadow allude to a sky of sword blows. The sculpture in resin with bronze powder titled Cão (Dog, 2015) shows a female dog trying to bite its own tail. The video Alvo (Target, 2015) displays a support hit simultaneously by several arrows in a violent cut in time and space. 

The collages series Dinheiro Pintado (Painted Money, 2015) gather groups of Brazilian reais bills that were stained with red ink when withdrawn from ATMs in theft attempts. Rendered useless after such acts, the bills make us think about the relationship between art and crime. The terracotta sculptures group Irreversíveis(Irreversible, 2014) shows three tortoises positioned upside down, in a position that is a form of condemnation. The two photographs titled Arara Vermelha I e II (Red Macaw, 2015), from the Zoo series, show a macaw in a living room and is part of the series that started in 2014, in which wild animals are moved to domestic environments. 

The works of João Castilho are inspired by literature, art and popular culture, by the present and in his own history, oscillating between personal and collective memory. João explores existential and political themes of life and death, of innocence and guilt, of psychological drives and fear.