Dakar, Sénégal, 1968 (2017)
Backbone (Columna Vertebral), 2015
The ordeals of the Filipina worker working in pineapple plantations in the southern part of the Philippines and, timely, coincides with the recent and publicized ordeal of factory workers in a substandard-equipped factory that caught fire and claimed the lives of many. In the said working environments, the woman is compared as a “cow” or “kalabaw,” physiologically bending her back to crouch at the soil beneath her feet, or working a machine to do patchwork all day long. The farmhand works under the scorching heat of the sun; the factory worker bears the humidity of the confines of a workplace warehouse.
All texts are courtesy of the artist.
Title Silenced (Unmentionables), 2009
Let us re-examine the processes and the system that has conditioned questions that gave rise to, case in point, feminism’s “woman problem.” These objects are a tribute to Linda Nochlin’s seminal essay titled “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? To which Nochlin herself answered, in a nutshell, that it is not the issue. The focus, rather, should be the question itself and the dominant male power elite eyes through which it was obviously viewed.
All texts are courtesy of the artist.
Dancing With A Dictator, 2018
Video still of burning wooden carved left pair of shoes worn by the Philippine President’s wife Imelda Marcos on the day her husband was sworn as the new commander in chief of the Philippines. The Marcos regime would span 20 years.
All texts are courtesy of the artist.
Untitled, Found not taken, Luanda-London-Newport, 2008-14
For Found Not Taken, Chagas walked through the streets of Luanda, London and Newport, collecting discarded objects and moving them, at times slightly and in other instances significantly, before photographing them. Taken out of their context and photographed in relation to a carefully chosen background, the mundane items are turned into abstract icons that animate the city. What might seem at first glance a symbol of a society characterized by waste and instant obsolescence is also a reflection on the fact that what is perceived as real is actually a construct. A selection from the series represented Angola at the 55th Venice Biennale, winning the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.
Untitled, Found not taken, Luanda-London-Newport, 2008-14
For Found Not Taken, Chagas walked through the streets of Luanda, London and Newport, collecting discarded objects and moving them, at times slightly and in other instances significantly, before photographing them. Taken out of their context and photographed in relation to a carefully chosen background, the mundane items are turned into abstract icons that animate the city. What might seem at first glance a symbol of a society characterized by waste and instant obsolescence is also a reflection on the fact that what is perceived as real is actually a construct. A selection from the series represented Angola at the 55th Venice Biennale, winning the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.
Elastic With Ball #6, 2018
Elastic With Ball #4, 2018
Untitled (from the series Weak Force), 2016
A black dot, frmly applied over cotton paper, is the circular mark of an oil bar that affects the line or surface of the geometric solid drawn. The expression of its force in the transformation of these regular solids is not always exercised vertically, claiming gravity as that weak force that can alter, as an artistic process, any of the objects in different directions and vectors.
Untitled (from the series Weak Force), 2016
