OF ALL REMAINS SOMETHING (2018)
We leave impressions and marks throughout our life, remains of time what we used to be and what is left of us. We keep the remains (objects, letters, photos, among others) as a way of making moments, memories, and records eternal even to our own existence.
The work started with the appropriation of the verse “from everything a little remained”, from the poem “Fragment” by Carlos Drummond de Andrade which also inspires the project its name, from which I wrote a poetry. Then, I took three old portraits from my family archive to compose the initial triptych: my grandmother, my grandmother with my mother and my mother with me. I chose to work with these pictures for their affective meaning and because these women left profound marks on my life.
From this triptych, I make several interferences in the images using different techniques, such as embroidery, sandpaper, cutouts, sewing, burn, writing, in a reference to the impressions we leave.
The remains can range from genetic inheritance and physical similarities, represented in the first triptych by the female womb, maternity, and the tree of life, as well as objects like my grandmother’s crochet pieces that were incorporated into the images. The traces remain in writings and letters, as in one of the triptychs, in which I wrote by hand excerpts from the poem I created.
The work also presents photographs of old and affective objects, which belonged to me, my grandmother, and my mother.
Over time, the marks and signs fade away and are forgotten, losing their sentimental and memory value. Will my descendants give the same importance to the crochet pieces of my grandmother? As a result, I also opted for interventions focused on the deconstruction of images, undoing their memories, and bringing new meanings to the original references. The images start to lose their sharpness, clarity and almost disappear, they stop being effective memories to become only vestiges.
Technical file: 5 triptych and 12 pictures printed with mineral pigments on ‘Kozo’ paper, exception made to a set on Luster paper.
Of all remains something, Carlos Drummond de Andrade said.
Remains a little of the smell,
of our traces,
of the child of the past,
of the lost youth,
of stories read and told.
Remains emotional objects,
words written in old pages,
faded photography,
erased memories,
feelings almost forgotten.
Remains the eternal missing.
fragments,
leftovers,
remnants of everything that was someday