Paisagens 1995

Curator: Here we have Adriana Varejão’s "Paisagens" from 1995. The piece, rendered with oil paint, presents us with an intriguing interplay between traditional landscape and something…other. Editor: My immediate sense is one of disruption. A colonial landscape abruptly broken apart, exposing some raw, visceral interior. Is that blood, or raw earth? Curator: Varejão is Brazilian, and her work often engages with the complicated legacy of colonialism in Brazil, including issues of cultural appropriation and hybridity. We can see echoes of 19th-century European landscape painting, a genre often used to legitimize colonial expansion, yet there's this rupture at the core. Editor: Yes, the classical composition of the tropical scenery, all palm trees and distant mountains, feels immediately defamiliarized, contaminated by this wound-like opening. It almost looks like a geode, sliced open to reveal not glittering crystals but carnage. What's that dark spire in the centre, jutting upwards? It’s so phallic. Curator: It's a complex symbol, isn’t it? In this context, I think it embodies both domination and resistance. The "Paisagens," are frequently discussed within postcolonial theory. Varejão challenges the idea of a pure, untouched Brazilian identity. This landscape is not a neutral background, but rather a site of violent encounter and transformation. Editor: So, the blood, the rawness… is that about exposing the violence inherent in the creation of national identity? That enforced 'hybridity'? The imagery evokes pain. Yet it’s contained within this oval frame, almost domesticated, presented like a morbid decorative piece. It is disturbing but fascinating. Curator: Precisely. Varejão never shies away from confronting the painful realities underlying seemingly beautiful or romanticized images. In “Paisagens,” she refuses to let us comfortably consume the idyllic vision of the landscape without acknowledging the complex history embedded within it. Editor: A visual feast of conflicted ideas, that leaves you digesting its implications long after you've moved on. It definitely gives us food for thought.