The artistic research that I have been developing is part of a study of Landscape as a process - from natural encounter to symbolic construction.
The Maritime impressions project (2015-2017) is the result of a repeated process of natural involvement, given by an immersion in the sea (Atlantic Ocean), at different times and with different means. In order to capture images from the continuous flow of the waves, I enter the sea with a tinted support - the waves remove some ink from the support, leaving its print. The resulting images have a direct coincidence with the forms taken by the wave at the specific moment of the impact. Created by the contact/touch they surpass the condition of representation to embrace the depiction of its action. They thus become simultaneously a document of my immersion and a symbolic transference of the creative act to Nature, and my body a vehicle for the natural image to appear.
At a later stage in this process, a new insertion into the sea’s flux occurs through the introduction of heliographs and frames. From a distance, one thinks of the possibility of creating multiples, of giving continuity to the collected waves, beyond the moment of the initial encounter.
The identification with natural patterns of interaction, from the production process to the construction of imaginary narratives, is sought for in the experience of such works. In order to promote different ways of being in Nature, the incorporation of image creation processes that consider the natural agency enables me to rethink relations of distancing, giving rise to relations of ontological continuity.
Joana Patrão
(Translation)