By JACOPO CRIVELLI VISCONTI
Ana Amorim’s work is intensely personal. And intimate. And invisible.
Invisible, because what we see, what she allows to be exhibited on the walls of a gallery or a museum, is a simulacrum. The real work is kept in books where, for more than three decades, at some point during the evening or late night, Ana draws from memory a map of all her movements throughout the day. It is from these books that her Large Canvases emerged. This is the name the artist gives to works that portray an entire year of her life. These are, in the majority of cases, installations comprising 365 or 366 elements, such as the one which opens this exhibition. Monumental works that take months to reach their conclusion, often more than the twelve months of the year that they refer to, and that require generous spaces in order to be shown and understood. Therefore, we may infer that this is the series that defines her as an artist. But it isn’t: “The book is the main work”, she says.
These little notebooks or black books condense the artist’s thoughts, not only because they are a spontaneous, rapid and a direct portrait of her daily life, but also because they are, and always will be, kept away from circulation, without engaging in all of the effects of the art system. They will remain, in a certain way, in a state of eternal potency, without ever becoming tangible, visible, and, principally, sellable “works”. Ever since the beginning of her trajectory as an artist, Ana has been uncomfortable with the idea of producing a work in order for it to become a commodity, and with playing the role that the majority of artists, consciously or unconsciously, end up playing in the capitalist system. This discomfort led her to refuse to participate in any exhibition that was sponsored by private institutions or that had commercial aims, for over a decade, which resulted in keeping her work invisible, but also made her one of the very few Brazilian artists to enter the field of institutional critique.
This is a field, however, which does not define her, because Ana returns, every day, to her books. It is in this daily practice of drawing for herself, in this silent habit of recording the movements of her day on a sheet that no one will see, that her work transcends the scope of institutional critique, since this, by its very nature, is directed at an audience and demands a debate. The works exhibited here are the side of her production in which Ana Amorim demonstrates total awareness of the urgent need for this debate. Works that stress the paradox of having to produce for a market in which she does not recognize herself, since she knows that it is this same market which objectively generates and nourishes the production, debate, circulation, and visibility of works and ideas. Even those ideas which, in the long term, have the potential to change the system.
These are works that can be light, almost transparent, heavy, hard-fought, violent, or even of a fragile, poetic, moving beauty. Gigantic works alongside minuscule ones, but that condense in a few square centimeters the power of the time that passes. Because it is of time, ultimately, that all of these works speak of. They don’t intend to challenge it, nor seek eternity. On the contrary, the impression is that they themselves dream of being time: ethereal, aware of their transience and impermanence, like the maps drawn on the walls during each day of the installation and during the exhibition itself, one for each day, that will be erased when the exhibition closes. One coat of paint, or two, will be enough to erase everything, nothing will remain.
Ana Amorim’s work is a memento mori.
Pictures: Ana Pigosso
© Copyright ANA AMORIM
“Every map in 2019, from January 1st to December 31st, was registered in the same book. This book is the starting point for all the subsequent works and it's a seminal piece in my practice.”
Book (20.3 x 17.7 x 3.0 cm), ballpoint pen and collage on 365 page book.
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“Every night during the year 2019 I had the following routine:
1. I counted seconds for one hour;
2. I registered a written map of the day;
3. I registered a full map of the day;
4. I registered the locator number for the day;
5. I registered a simplified map of the day.”
365 pieces (31.9 x 44.0 cm, each piece), black ballpoint gel pen on white paper . Total installation: 6 x 10 m.
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30 days of mental maps drawn directly on the gallery walls. The process began during the installation and will end on the last day of the show.
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"Handmade invitation for my exhibition in London (1994) with details on one side and map on the other."
Single piece (14.5 x 10.4cm), black ballpoint pen on light blue paper.
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“Work on my reflection on the end of the 10 Year Performance Project”
Single Piece, pen on paper (29.5 x 21 cm)
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Book with several works, between 1997 and 1999, after the end of the Ten-Year Performance Project (1988-1997).
Single work, 30.9x42.2cm, book with drawings, collage, photographs etc.
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“For a full month I drew a continuous map of the day and trimmed the paper around the map.”
31 pieces, white gel pen on cutout black paper (various sizes cutout from 8.9 x 8.9 cm each)
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“This project consists in registering the total number of days I have lived, for each day during 2019.”
365 pieces, black gel pen on small paper tag with red string (2 x 1 cm each).
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[Dialogue with a Friend - 1991]
“For 30 days (non-consecutive), in 1991, I registered an evidence of my being alive in the world.”
Single Piece, collage, acrylic, pastel, paper and drawings on canvas (85.5 x 105.5 cm)
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“I drew a map and immediately cut around it.”
Single work (33.9 x 25.5 cm), white acrylic on black cutout paper.
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[Art Contract - 2001]
Conceptual work (text).
“In this performance, I drafted an Art Contract and used it to mediate my interactions with art spaces interested in showing my work. The contract discussed the role art plays for large financial groups (Artwash). My dialogue with the Art System was mediated exclusively by the Art Contract.” The contract was used from 2001 to 2016.
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Collection of media, artworks, photos and news during the years 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Single work (136x51cm), collage on laminated cardboard.
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[Large Map - 2007]
Map of a day in Sao Paulo, covered in white acrylic.
Single piece (82.5 x 118.8), acrylic on paper.
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“I drew a map of a day and immediately after I cut out the paper around the lines very quickly.”
Single piece (75 x 104 cm), acrylic on cut out paper.
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Mental map of 1/12/2009.
Single piece (34 x 25.5 cm), white pen on black paper.
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Vertical map extracted from the "MAPA" calendar year routine, from 2004.
Single piece (207.5 x 34 cm), acrylic on paper.
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“In 2011 I acted as the Transcommunicator for Sydney Possuelo in his meeting of the tribes of Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. I was really moved by the experience I had that day and when I returned home I decided to draw and later embroider the map and the impressions of the day.”
Single piece (approx. 108 x 200 cm), embroidery, thread on cloth.
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“In this map I did not register everyday movements, but meaningful experiences during the year 2010.”
Single piece (approx. 183 x 232 cm), black mercerized cotton thread embroidered on white cotton cloth.
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“Map from an ordinary day.”
Single Piece (200 x 164.5 cm), acrylic and white pencil on paper.
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“Map of day I canceled my PhD in the Maori Visual Arts Department, at Massey University, New Zealand. My thesis would be archived at the university and that would violate my Art Contract.”
Single piece (15 x 15 cm), pencil on canvas.
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“Embroidery of my day in Sao Paulo, Brazil.”
Embroidery (65,9 x 55,7 cm), black cotton thread on white cotton cloth.
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“Study of 2 vertical cutout maps in Sao Paulo and New York City.”
Two pieces (37 x 29.9 cm), black gel pen on gray cutout paper.
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“Work done by overlapping 7 maps on each tag, covering each one with liquid white out - Sao Paulo, Brazil (19/08/2019 - 01/09/2019)”
Two pieces (31 x 29 cm), pen, liquid white out and shipping tags.
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“Map highlighting homelessness in Sao Paulo (30/10/2019).”
Single piece (45.9 x 45.9 cm), black gel pen on white linen-cotton napkin.
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“Work with a reproduced article about the pervasive social and ecological consequences of the destruction and suppression of knowledge systems of indigenous peoples in local communities and my map for that day.”
Source Text: https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/news/sustainability-news/scientists-warn-on-the-dangerous-implications-of-losing-indigenous-and-local-knowledge-systems
Single work (41 x 48.4 cm), black gel pen on white paper.
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“Private Counting Seconds performance, counting 6 minutes per day, for 27 days (04/10/2022 - 30/10/2022).”
Single work (36 x 42.1 cm), 27 pieces, black gel pen on gray paper.
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[Man of the Hole
“Reproduced news article and mental map for the day (24/08/2022).”
“The first time I heard about the Man of the Hole [Índio do Buraco] was in 2005, while I was working as Trancommunicator for the Director of the Department Isolated Indigenous Peoples of FUNAI. At that time I was completely involved with issues of art appropriation by major corporations and started to reflect on capitalism and its dominant system which seems to be the only alternative.
During conversations at FUNAI, I learned that there were 114 records of isolated indigenous groups in Brazil. They are Indigenous Peoples who at some point came into contact with western society, mostly with negative consequences, and decided to run into the forest after every attempt of being contacted. What fascinates me is that no gifts or trinkets, such as machetes, mirrors, etc would entice contact and integration with our world.
This is a radically different way of being in this world.
The Man of the Hole resisted contact for years, hiding in holes in farms of the region, since his territory was taken by land grabbers and farmers. It is this life which we know nothing about that fascinates me. What was it that he knew, which is unknown to us, and was so precious that made him run away from our world?
Since my life is art, everyone's life is art. What did the Man of the Hole know about living which we have lost?
The Man of the Hole spoke a language which was unique and did not belong to any existing linguistic group in Brazil and therefore he was isolated and in silence until his death.”
Single work (76 x 45.5 cm), black gel pen on Japanese paper.
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