Mehr Licht 1985

Curator: Juliao Sarmento created "Mehr Licht" in 1985 using mixed media. What stands out to you initially about this composition? Editor: It strikes me as melancholic, almost fragmented. The juxtaposition of stark black and white with softer earth tones creates a real tension. What's your take on this assemblage of imagery? Curator: The composition is divided into six distinct rectangular sections, each acting as a plane containing different visual systems. The planes in turn present semiotic tension which undermines immediate interpretation. The overall effect is the structural denial of an intuitive sense of totality or visual harmony. The human figures in the top left immediately draw one in before pulling away from the adjacent non-figurative segments. Editor: The juxtaposition is fascinating. On the one hand we have intimate depictions of human form and everyday scenes--a boat at sea, a person at a piano, what looks like a garment, or a body floating under water...On the other hand, a strange abstraction using the geometry of color seems deliberately obtuse. It's almost as if Sarmento is evoking memory itself: hazy, broken up, and hard to make sense of. Is there some cultural connection perhaps in his imagery that makes his intention more plain? Curator: One can suggest the reference to Goethe's last words, "More Light," but this will be subjective. In my mind the geometry present in one panel disrupts the sense of nostalgia we see with the figurative references in others, resulting in pure artifice, construction, and representation of forms themselves. Editor: It's as if he’s suggesting that even the most seemingly objective geometric abstraction still relies on memory or feeling to be meaningful. And those images...that singer almost choking; that drowning figure...these have emotional resonance which complicates the formal tension that exists between the other sections. I find myself oscillating between those poles even after long observation. Curator: Exactly. The eye moves around with restless agitation. The piece’s beauty is that unresolved tension, a lack of central focus. Ultimately, "Mehr Licht" resists the reduction of symbolic narrative. Editor: Well put. I initially came to this artwork ready to analyze, only to discover an intellectual maze of pictorial relations, making for an experience, for me, that is profound, puzzling and ultimately unforgettable.