Vilma Gold is pleased
to present a new exhibition of work by Alexandre da Cunha.
Da Cunha’s works in the past have played with everyday
utilitarian objects, using and re-using objects and stripping
them of their original use value and combining them to create
new structures.
However, da Cunha’s use of these materials is loaded with
their reference to high-modernist art through structure, pattern
and motif. Brancusi columns made of gardenware, busts constructed
from mop heads and stretched preprinted textiles emblazoned
with music icons nod to the history and techniques of high art
with an air of dollar store aesthetic. Aesthetically,
da Cunha’s work nods toward Arte Povera and Fluxus, but
from a background where reuse is part of everyday life.
“What is important to note, though, and this also
relates to the idea of cannibalization, is that everything we
take in is digested in a very specifically Brazilian way. I
am altering most of the objects I use, so they are not readymades
in the classic Duchampian sense. They are for the most part
fairly universal, but they also carry the specific context of
where they come from—a particular aesthetics and history.”
- Alexandre da Cunha in conversation with Jens Hoffman, CCA
Wattis
Da Cunha’s ambition with these new works is to establish
a structure that resonates within a classical repertoire; that
although the sculpture is constructed from readymades, the works
have been sculpted out of their original forms and combined
to become reminiscent of figurative sculpture. The new works,
constructed from domestic objects such as furniture, mops, walking
sticks, household objects, pots, planters and concrete, have
a patina of age or human touch already. One effect of these
new sculptures is to refer to ambiguous unknown structures,
which look like fictional mechanical devices, or improvised
tools, but retain an element of ambiguity as to their possible
use value.
Alexandre da Cunha’s new works explore two strands of
interest, references to art history and the idea of display,
and the notion of cultural tourism, and the signs and symbols
that become representative of a place or experience. In re-appropriating
stereotypical iconography adorned upon found fabrics, and creating
flag like compositions in photo montage, da Cunha re- emphasizes the
often neglectful use of this imagery in areas of identity, consumerism
and taste.
Alexandre da Cunha is currently exhibiting in Passengers at
the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco until
August, 2008. He has two forthcoming solo exhibitions
at Luisa Strina, Sao Paulo and also at Sommer and Kohl in Berlin.
For further information or images please contact Kate Fisher:
+44 (0)20 7729 9888
or: kate@vilmagold.com
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