(a minute to) Stop Measuring - retrospective

This exhibition was a retrospective from an homonymous exhibition that took place in 2009, at Sala Maior Gallery, in the Porto art district, where the artist used several techniques and materials to think upon the look of each one of us and the society upon others. A look made of measures and absent of affections. A look that often overrates youth, beauty, money and fame upon other values like wisdom, love, companionship and solidarity and that directly, or indirectly, it builds (or destroys) us as individuals. She used the artistic tools to accomplish or achieve new ways of seeing giving us the possibility of putting ourselves face to face and look at each other within a shared intimacy ( what we feel, how we feel, what we see, how we look, what leaves a mark on us and the marks we leave on others)”…using two female bodies, a young one and an old one, to question herself and make us question about the passing of time, inviting us to look over the signs of the skin and find out the beauty beyond the surface. And this to make people feel the silent tragedy of a woman that never aged beyond her 18 years, regardless the ruthless passing of time, in a tribute to all the women that endured a too heavy load, remaining strong in spirit and showing an enormous courage, never giving up and still carrying that heavy load with the nobility of a Caryatid.

Using daily and autobiographical references she makes remarks and observations that, while not being provocative, are subtle, critic and ironically direct. In each of her work we can find a way to combine personal history with distinct stories mixing individual and universal marks.

The art full of that experience that comes from everyone of us is believable or, at least, should pull the spectator to a highest level of commitment, complicity, respect, interest and willingness to understand.

She offers us a reflection on the judgments we make about others and our pre-conceived notions associated with beauty and love, constituting an intensely feminine discourse illustrated by photography, lacework and old wooden boxes dusted with subtle ironies and sweet memories. In the face of her grandmother, presented to us as a Caryatid, we can decipher the public and private dimensions of her work which simultaneously pays tribute to the women of her life and offers a universal ode to all women which inspire us to challenge the limits of what is considered possible through their astonishing inner strength.