Tente en el aire
Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, Portugal
15 May – 25 August 2018
Tente en el aire (Hold yourself in midair) is a direct reference to the Casta paintings—it is the name of an invented racial classification denoting the descendant of a Campulato and a Cambujo. This designation, referring to someone literally floating between identities, incapable of claiming their roots, reflects the chastising nature of these definitions. While the frames are painted in bright, vibrant colors, the paintings they contain—and the walls they were installed on—reflect Calero's extensive color research into the shades and tones of brown, a color range which became much more prevalent in her practice in the aftermath of this project. This new palette was in itself an exploration of pigment as an example of classificatory narratives that define hierarchies, voices and positionalities. Here the subject appears in an abstraction of the portrait genre that shifts the notion of personal representation towards the narrative of collective identities and the layered nature of their constructs.
Notes on the Formation of Syncretic Canons in the Americas
Text by Sira Pizà Airas
Photos by Bruno Lopes
