The Saint Suppressed by Ornaments
Objects and images are fundamental for concretizing and materializing the ideas that form a religious system, to which meanings are added and the feelings of what they represent are directed. As for Christianity, such symbols - saints, angels, the Bible, the cross, among others - are typically presented with a cornucopia of ornaments. The purpose of this combination is that the whole is able to cause feelings such as celebration, worship, sublimeness. Although the main characteristic of ornaments is aesthetics, their importance in the religious context goes beyond their decorative function, as they are capable of presenting and defining the value of the symbol they ornate, as well as conducting themselves the narration of the religious context.
The series A Supressão do Santo pelo Ornamento (“Saint Suppressed by Ornaments”) comprises paintings and drawings where the images of saints in retables and altarpieces are replaced with other ornaments, so that the composition is overwhelmed by a semantic whole whose dimension relates directly to the memory and values of the Christian culture.
Farm Management Instructions
During research at the Afro-Brazilian Museum of São Paulo, I found a letter titled “Instructions for Farm Administration”, which detailed methods for managing enslaved people to maximize profit. Within the opulent interiors of colonial buildings, I recreate a plantation’s operation following the norms described in that document. By exhibiting this material, I question how much of that past still shapes our present—a society where slavery, though abolished, continues to echo in the persistent inequalities it established, functioning as a kind of postscript to class relations that still define Brazil today.
Provider's Room
The reference of this work is the Gallery of Providers of Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Rio de Janeiro, which displays the portraits of its Providers from the early 19th century to the present time. The Space was fully reproduced in the painting and the added information relate to the background of the portrayed Providers. Although benefactors, some of the Providers were charged of unjust enrichment, slavery; of being large landowners, politically favored; and were removed for having diverted resources of the Institution.
In short, it is a small group that make up a charitable system with its own rules and policies and which, due to its longevity, is able to set parameters for the ethical values and interests of a portion of the Brazilian high society.
The Seller of Miniature Characters
In this series The Seller of Miniature Characters, I reference subway stations in major cities as a setting where a fictional informal vendor displays and sells their products. Laid out on tarps on the floor or hanging from hooks on the structures of the space are miniature figures that evoke both religious images and action figures. Alongside sacred images are figures such as politicians, police officers, and evangelical pastors—elements that make up many paramilitary groups known as “milícias” in Rio de Janeiro.
Through the depiction of an everyday architectural space in an apparently banal scene, I present, in miniature form, the contemporary agents who, structured through politics and religion, exercise control through armed force.
Jesus and His Theocratic Project for the 2000s
In my work, images related to religion take on a central role. I emphasize, however, that my interest lies not in their transcendental dimension but in their institutional organization and historical development—particularly in how religion transforms itself from a space of spiritual practice into an instrument of power capable of mobilizing the masses.
This is the conceptual axis of the series Jesus and His Theocratic Project for the 2000s, in which I explore, through the juxtaposition of references from different periods, the political and institutional uses of faith—from the Catholic Church’s role in sanctioning slavery as a common market practice during the colonial period to the consolidation of the so-called “milícias,” contemporary organizations formed through alliances between neo-Pentecostal churches, paramilitary groups, and political sectors that control territories in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro through armed coercion.