This first exhibition in the Oliva Arauna Gallery shows a sequence of seven photographs from the series “Comportamiento Animal” and the series “Ocultaçoes”.

“Comportamento Animal” is a work from 2002 that has been exhibited only once in 2005. It is a series of large scale photographs (180cm x 180cm) in which eyes always make an appearance. Seen in this size, the eyes come to show new and unexpected forms that make us appreciate other ways of looking and make visible other species of animal, in which we begin to see ourselves. A strange pathos connected with the permanent discovery of infinity, and with all the surprises that life has in store for us, some good and others not so good. The motive behind this series could be the desire to show different ways of looking.

“Ocultaçoes”, a series from 2008 that is being shown in the Oliva Arauna Gallery for the first time, follows the reverse path from the other series: it tries to hide. In these images there is a relationship between the eyes and hands that will be decisive: they are our most expressive organs and their relation is not accidental, they tolerate all associations and mutual understandings.

Between seeing and hiding, there comes about infinite modulations: showing and faking, glancing distractedly or escaping with a look, showing what is on the inside or creating with one look an impenetrable wall between the inside and the out...

Although it deals with two works that are separated by time, and by object and means, inevitably there is a network linking both series. Their mutual understandings and articulations are kept pretty clear.

In 2001, when I exhibited La Reine Vous Salue, I quoted from a catalogue a verse of Caetano Veloso that says, “será que esses olhos sau meus?” (Will it be that these eyes are mine?). I then wrote:

“Pois, por tanto se usarem, engendra-se uma espécie de propiedade comum que nos leva a pensar seriamente quem  vê e no que é visto e também como se alteram as certezas sobre os pontos de vista…"

(“So we will get used to creating a type of common property that leads us to think seriously about who is seeing and not what has been seen and also how the truth changes depending on the point of view…”)

To me it seemed appropriate to return to look at this same topic from a different perspective.

Jorge Molder