Adriana Varejão: Polvo
A solo exhibition of new works by one of Brazil’s leading artists, Adriana Varejão, addresses themes of colonialism, miscegenation and anthropology in Brazil, which is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. fluoro spoke with Varejão about her work.
Varejão’s newest body of work, Polvo, expands her exploration of the mixture of races with a series of self-portraits. The series highlights the spectrum of interracial identity in Brazil, a country where historically race has assumed a social and cultural function.
A racial census issued by the Brazilian government in 1976, served as inspiration for this series. The government survey asked Brazilian citizens to describe their own skin colour, resulting in 136 different metaphorical descriptions. From these Varejão selected the most linguistically poetic descriptions, varying from Sapecada (Flirting with Freckles), Café com Leite (Milky Coffee), Burro quando Foge (Faded Fawn) and Queimada de Sol (Sun Kissed), and depicts herself with each of these skin tones. “I am interested in the process of reconstruction of history, through the concept that each present has its own past,” she Varejão.
Varejão groups these works together as triptychs, so that comparisons can be made between the various self-assessments of race, creating her own set of oil paints as part of the series, which are displayed alongside the portraits. “The approach is purely conceptual so I prefer to work with something very neutral. In this work the subject is not about ‘painting a portrait’,” she says. “The creation of oil paints is intended to reflect about the mestizo identity. In USA, for example, people identify themselves as black or white.”
While Varejão’s experience of these issues is derived from her own studies and is centralised to Brazil, the issues raised speak to a larger global audience. “In Brazil, different from many other countries and cultures, the racial identity is attached to skin colour and not to people’s ascendancy. This concept of colour is more porous and fluid, creating categories that are not so precise. It can even change, as when someone call themselves sun kissed,” Varejão proposes that there is something to be learnt of this view. “I think that it is rich when you add new concepts and different ways of viewing the theme of racial identity, since mestizaje is a global phenomenon,” she says.
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Polvo is on display at Lehmann Maupin New York, USA until Saturday 21 June 2014.
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