Mythology and Colonial Violence
As Armas e os Barões Assinalados, mixed media on canvas , 215 x 190cm, 2020.
In this painting I created a background with collaged prints of digitalised colonial documents relating to Portuguese colonies in Africa, including records of the value of slaves being shipped to Brazil. I then used as a reference one of my photographs of the Torre de Belém, which is a 16th century fortification in Lisbon associated with the Portuguese explorations, and I drew the tower with black charcoal to represent the myth of discoveries. I only line drew the tower with charcoal as a way of representing how historical memory fades and how often only some aspects of history are remembered. I then painted using oil the male figure drinking sacrificial blood in a ritual to the Lusitanian god Cariocecus. The title of the painting is the first line of the Lusíadas poem.
Que Eu Canto o Peito Ilustre Português, mixed media on canvas , 215 x 190cm, 2020.
In this painting I collaged the prints of the digitalised colonial documents in the shape of doves as a way of subverting the meaning associated with the birds (peace). I then used as a reference the image of a caravela, which was a sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese, and I drew it with red charcoal on the canvas to continue to represent the myth of discoveries. Again, I only line drew the caravel with charcoal as a way of representing how history fades and becomes selectively represented. I then painted using oil the figure of the Lusitanian god Turiacus carrying a dead child as a way of representing how violence (such as colonialism) has been validated by mythology. The title of the painting comes from a line of the Lusíadas poem.
Pelourinho, oil on canvas , 150 x 120cm, 2020.
In this painting I portrayed colonial symbolic violence by depicting a pelourinho, which is a Portuguese stone column traditionally representing municipal power and independence, but also associated with the roman Columna Maenia, where criminals, and in the Portuguese colonies also slaves, were bound to the column as a form of public punishment.