The Forms of Experience/Tactile Visuality 

Inside, 

Outside, 

Depth, 

Slow, 

Calm, 

At ease, 

Smile, 

Let go. 

Present moment, 

Wonderful moment. 

Thich Nhat Hanh 

When beginning to write a text about the body of work of an artist, countless passages open up. To  discuss Iracema Barbosa's works, several analytical possibilities arise and interweave: the atelier  practice, the artist's being in the state of hic et nunc – or the here and now – and the exercise with  the infinitesimal as a line of work, which, with due distance, we can associate with movements in  the history of art that address constructivism, post-minimalism, as well as gestural art forms.[1] 

In the atelier, everything emerges because everything is in process. At one moment, certainty  prevails; in the next, it fades with the following move until the artist gives a final touch to the story  of making. Between the creation of one work and another, there are narratives tied to Iracema's  many experiences over her 36 years of working in visual arts. Each learning from the situations that  arise informs the practices, and it is important to note that, for the artist, experiences with art are  fully connected to the universe of human experience and not to the realm of the monumental or  mass society. 

Within this dimension lie the fruitful learnings she had with the artist Aluísio Carvão and the art  theory and history professor Ronaldo Brito, each contributing their knowledge to the artist: practical 

and theoretical knowledge, respectively. With Carvão, came the learning of the atelier routine [2] and the cultivation of artistic singularity, and with Brito, she learned to think about the work and see  the work in dialogue with other works, which constitute visual language[3]. I mention this because  it is often mentioned by Iracema, and it relates to her appreciation of her mentors and the learning  that stems from this relationship. It is no coincidence that Iracema invited artists who were once her  students at the Institute of Arts at the University of Brasília to participate in the exhibition. Here,  another question arises to contribute to this lived dimension: the cultivation of personal  relationships as a way of being in the art world. 

This perception of being with and making art is connected to another layer of the artist's interests,  which is tied to the way she lives her life, bringing her closer to Zen-Buddhist studies, particularly  with the teachings of Vietnamese master Thich Nhat Hanh [4]. We know that Zen dedicates much of  its energy to being present, through the practice of mindfulness, as the meditative act is central to  Zen practice. To meditate means to act in the moment as if nothing else needs to be done, other than  to be. [5] 

The Zen aspect of Iracema's production is not only present in the way she sees the world, which she  defines as very contemplative—attributed to her interest in nature, which, in a way, led her to study  Geography and the formation of landscapes—but also in the way she engages with materials,  colors, light, and shadow. There is a respect for the inherent qualities of the materials as they  present themselves. Iracema observed – referring to her approach in relation to the degree of  interference with materials – that they held their own value and presence, needing only to be. This  is something we can observe in her Caixas Vazias (1998-2000) and Séries Infinitas (2000-2001). 

As we have seen, in addition to attention to the original properties of the materials, there is also a  meticulous observation of color application, which has undergone various stages in her body of  work: from color in painting, associated with the depiction of scenes, from the mid-1980s to the  mid-1990s, to color on wooden cutouts, as seen in the installations Mar da Bahia em dia de chuva (2006), Bois de Carnaval (2003-2009), and As equilibristas (2005-2006). 

In these works—as, indeed, in the entirety of her body of work—the titles are indicative of ideas  related to form, as well as the condition that form assumes when it becomes an installation in space.  Unlike her earlier paintings, these works are no longer at the service of representation but present  themselves to the sensorial world, re-emerging with new configurations depending on the space in  which they are installed. It is worth mentioning that the artist’s attention to her surroundings and the  incidents of the landscape remain present: the color hues of the sea in Mar da Bahia (which were imprinted in her memory); the twigs from trees with various shades in Bois de Carnaval, around  Iracema's home in Bois de Vincennes, France; and the allusion in As Equilibristas to the instability  of an ecosystem that can be ravaged by natural forces, as occurred during the natural catastrophe in  France in the 1990s, which the work references, when violent storms uprooted the same trees with  such diverse tones, and many others. 

The productive cycle of color use—closely related to Eduardo Sued's [6] paintings and Ione  Saldanha's sculptures—gave way, in the early 2000s, to the introduction of a more restricted palette,  as she herself describes, exploring nuances extending from white to black. For her, this was a way  of perceiving forms better, not only as an element of objectivity but as the form of the experience of  being in the world [7]. Intimately connected to the work with gradations of gray is the learning  about the incidence of light and shadow in her work, which occupies a broad space within her body  of works. 

Not that color was abandoned, but it emerges gently, without fanfare, as seen in Perfis [As  Cariocas] (2002), which, in addition to presenting a different relationship with color—one tied to  the support—also points to movement and sequencing, resembling the frames of a film that follow  one another, configuring a narrative. This is something Iracema has related to for a long time, ever  since she had the opportunity to think about moving images when she engaged with film editing.  While the sculptures/installations mentioned earlier reference the memory of the artist’s time in  France, here, there is a reference to the hills of Rio de Janeiro, Iracema’s birthplace. 

The sequence of images that characterizes some moments in Iracema's production, shown in this  exhibition, is not, as we mentioned earlier, in service of representing a particular external reality nor  does it correspond to a narrative logic that constitutes it. What occurs is the elaboration of forms  and work with material in alignment with memories, histories, and life experiences. And we know  that in the process of artistic production, there are fabrications. It is not figurative; it is figural. The  chaining of images in works by Iracema, such as in Tempêtes (2003-2017), Geometria das Águas (2009), and Refúgio (2017), would resemble what Gilles Deleuze defined as rhythm or the vital  force that (...) overflows all domains and crosses them [8]. It refers to the sensation and impulse to  make, not submission to meaning. This quality of continuity and movement has allowed these  works to transform into video. 

The affinity with memories and rhythmic chaining continues in Bilhetinhos de amor (2013),  pointing to the connection with life and its everyday moments that revive color: pink emerges,  vibrant and affectionate, intertwined with writings: Daqui a pouco o fim de semana. Je't aime or Um 

abraço tão gostoso de manhã. Te amo tanto. The affectionate tone remains in the series Para não  dizer que não falei de flores (2019), made during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in this case,  the moment called for an expansion of affection, which overflowed into the geopolitical realm,  indicated by the title—referencing the song of the same name by Geraldo Vandré, which became a  symbol of resistance to the dictatorship—and reinforced by the complements of the works:  typewritten letters that accompany them, sometimes with a poem by Jorge Luis Borges, Adam Cast  Forth (1964): a sad realization about the Garden of Eden as an envisioned illusion, or an excerpt  from Octavio Paz's poem Entre la piedra y la flor (1976), an ode to the work that is destroyed in the  face of the power of money: Saber contar no es saber cantar. 

Affection also occurs in the realm of tactility. There is a synesthetic quality in Iracema’s visual  production: a crossing of sensations that move through visuality to reach other senses. This appears  in the various materials she uses in her process, as well as in her methods of making, such as in the  act of sewing, which occupies spaces in fabric or paper and develops in multiple forms, as seen in  the series Costurando Sombras (2016). The line enters, drawing straight and winding paths,  sometimes in circles, in brief points or almost disappearing, disguised amid stains, as in A incrível  viagem de Shackleton (2016-2017), or dialoguing in unison with skin-colored paper and folds, as in  Cartas (2019-2021). 

The delicacy of the stitching also happens in the weaving of personal relationships. One of the  fundamental aspects for Iracema, as we mentioned, is the work that takes place in the atelier. A part  of it happens in solitude: it is the artist and her process. However, there are other moments when an  exchange occurs, and other artists come into contact with the artist and her production, and in that  space, affections are woven. In this exhibition, Iracema invited her former students, now artists,  with whom she also worked in the atelier and exhibition installations, to engage in dialogue with  her body of works. These artists contribute to the richness of textures—scratched, scrawled,  painted, marbled—presenting fragments of their own research. 

Bárbara Paz engages with the series involving stitching, but also with Para não dizer que não falei  de flores (2019), presenting Territórios from the Pequenas Peles series (2018-2019). Reminiscent of  irregularly cut countries or states, Bárbara relates to family memories using stitches and fabrics  found at home, and inscribes, with a typewriter, conversations, dreams, and revelations on them.  Cecília Lima also proposes a conversation with stitching, but from another angle: that of light and  shadow, referring to the work Costurando Sombras (2016). Using rice paper and pre-existing 

wooden and straw structures—some given to her by Iracema—Cecília presents an installation  where the interplay with light expands the materiality of the works through the overlapping of  shadows. The dialogue with other works was proposed by the artist, directed now to Iracema's  works related to sculpture, such as Caixas Vazias (1998-2000) and Séries Infinitas (2000-2001).  

These are the Vacilantes (2020), also an installation. Like the Caixas, Vacilantes—made from  discarded wooden scraps—are subject to a game of weight and counterweight. 

Two artists chose Bilhetinhos de Amor (2013) to establish a dialogue: Gisele Lima and Luciana  Ferreira. Two different perspectives emerged: Gisele presents her work in the form of small  sculptures, while Luciana develops the poetic work on paper and video, but in both, the text bursts  forth. Bilhetinhos de desamor (2023) is Gisele’s response to the bilhetinhos de amor from Iracema,  returning to the idea of ruptures (Fui em quem estraguei tudo, Quero distância)—which the  ceramic, cold in nature, symbolizes, inscribing over the small pieces phrases and messages taken  from social media. Luciana, in addition to selecting Bilhetinhos de Amor as a work for dialogue,  also creates relationships with Geometria das águas (2009) and Para não dizer que não falei de  flores (2019). From the idea of deconstructing language, as the artist describes, the poetics of the  works presented in this exhibition appear in the video leitura 5 (2021) and in the photographic  polyptych pequenos poemas para de vez em quando (ou poeminhas à toa) (2021), where Luciana  reworks, repeats, scribbles, and crumples, around poems by Gertrude Stein and Augusto de  Campos. 

But not only in the form of poems and declarations of love do the texts appear in Iracema's works:  in Telefônicos (2004-2005), we see the painted and sewn intervention on pre-existing texts, such as  in the addresses of telephone directory pages. Note that interventions on various papers are  recurring in Iracema's work. We also see this happening in Saquinhos de mercado (2020-2023),  where the artist adds identical bags, sewing them together. The two works José de Deus presents in  this exhibition engage with these two pieces, not in the form of poems or based on social media  messages but in the form of reportage. In Fruit News (Melancias e Bananas Pt2) (2016), images of  tropical fruits are stamped on newspaper pages, alluding to clichés used to reference Brazil. By  repeatedly stamping them over news stories about crimes and catastrophes, the work points to two  calling strategies: exposing the media that reinforces stereotypes about the country and highlighting  the contradiction between the simple and colorful image of fruit and the violence of Brazil. The  piece Jesus Neon (2017) is the cover of a zine, printed in vibrant pink, that critiques religious  orthodoxy, confronting its dogmas with what is actually happening in society: the LGBTQIA+ issue  and racism.

The succession of events through material and form that we observe in Iracema's works is  something that Romulo Barros also introduces in his works, in different ways. In the two works he  presents for the dialogue, Modular (2018) and Pau-Brasil joia (2019), the chain occurs as a  development that leads to transformation. Modular, presented in conversation with Séries Infinitas (2000-2001), consists of variable parts, adapting to the space in which it is installed: form is not  static and rigid, as Romulo states. Pau-Brasil joia, a series of reddish paintings, links to stitching  and overlaps, referring, as the name suggests, to an old, adorned, and colonizing Brazil. The  modulations continue as a place for exchange. Mar da Bahia em dias de chuva (2006) was the work  chosen by Gustavo Silva Amaral for its close connection to Sequências (2016), a non-painting,  mounted as blocks of color that, together, suggest a certain landscape or pictorial body, according to  the artist. Their relationship with Iracema goes beyond poetic affinity, having also been established  through assistance in atelier practice and installations. 

Thus, Iracema Barbosa’s works are guided by a blending of art and affection, as the very fabric of  life. Whether tracing connections through stitches, seams, and transparencies, or in terms of body color, the artist presents a body of work woven like a continuum, spiraling outward: an open curve  

that revolves around a center, like a snail. These are processes of making in small gestures that lead  toward infinity. It is organicity in the constructive and construction in the organic. 

[1] All of these issues were taken into account in adopting the curatorial approach desired for this  exhibition, after several stages of conversation with the artist and observation of her body of work.  The works mentioned in this text are those selected to be part of the show. 

[2] Statement given to the author on April 26, 2023. 

[3] Ibid. 

[4] Thich Nhat Hanh (1926 – 2022) was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who founded the Engaged  Buddhist Movement, revealing his dedication to work not limited to the individual level but also to  the collective. He was a peace activist and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

[5] This is one of the many issues addressed by Thich Nhat Hanh in his book Nothing to Do,  Nowhere to Go, published by Vozes Publishing in 2007, which Iracema gave to me on one of my  birthdays. 

[6] Iracema wrote her master's thesis on the work of Eduardo Sued, titled Inquieta Geometria (Restless Geometry). Rio de Janeiro: PUC, 2001. 

[7] Statement given to the author on April 26, 2023.

[8] DELEUZE, Gilles. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. Rio de Janeiro, Jorge Zahar, pp.  49-50.