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THE SMALL OBJECT
An examination of great achievements orients the paths traded by this
show dedicated to exhibiting artworks in a very reduced scale. The small
dimension of the works bring forth multiple readings about the meaning of
‘small’ and reduction and opens an array of interpretations from a lyrical
framing of the artist’s personal history to political views that place the
‘small’ inside public space and as an excluded element in the social and
economic sphere.
The small object rejects an authoritarian contemporary visuality engaged
with urban massified media. Against any kind of visual urgency, the small
object demands the spectator’s patience, silence, retainment, and a careful
search for all the elements and maneuvers contained within so that they can
be fully seen and appreciated.
We can also think of smallness in Bachelard’s placement of the miniature as
a global resting place where “images appear in a large quantity thus making
the large come out of the small.” This miniature world encompasses myriads
of secretly kept affectionate values – it calls to action bygone childhood
memories and restores a feeling of utter familiarity. The small object here
further embodies the use of the diminutive word in vernacular speech, where
an expression such as “lil’ daddy” is filled with gentle caress. The small
object gives delicacy and proximity to seeing: it is a subtle whisper, a
message caught between the lines.
On the other hand, when the small is offset in a political context it
acquires a poignant critical definition. Another use of the diminutive in
popular language reveals a derogatory sense. The expression “negrinho” (little
negro) points to a depreciation of the black man, a maneuver that weakens,
humiliates, and lessens his role as a person and citizen. In Brazil, we see
the evidence of a bull fight accomodated inside a historical process of
wealth concentration and mistreating, resulting in a sense of diminished
citizenship felt by the majority of the population that is largely excluded
consumer goods, knowledge, and technology.
The small object in the contemporary art scenario criticizes the current
dimensions of all elements in the current art system and unlevelled power
distribution among production, distribution, institutional and market
agencies. It poses an irony to the scaling up of forces tensioned by
curators, critics, and gallerists resulting in a impoverished role of the
artist in relation to his/her work within the art context.
Nano is a commentary on the microscopic absorption of art in today’s social
fabric and questions the minimal artistic intervention within a changing
collective behavior. It is a reaction towards the minuscule insertion of the
artist in contemporary society.
Divino Sobral
Goiânia, 2005
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