blue as a color that marks Afro-diasporic experiences and Ifound myself threshing flowers to paint with blue petals, which will never befixed in time: the Clitoria Ternátea flower, which, blown on watery paper,teaches me paths of increasingly misshapen blue shapes, difficult to name and,therefore, sometimes it is not possible to retain them in time.
(Excerpt fromJuliana dos Santos' doctoral thesis)
How do youput together the criteria that “define” a color?
It can besaid that since Aristotle, understanding the things of the world throughontology has become one of the main quests of Western thought. For thisapproach, everything could be defined by the order of being; and among allthese things are colors. Blue is the color that Juliana dos Santos hasdedicated herself to understanding. In this task, however, the artist has notclosed herself off to the search for an exact delimitation. Dos Santos directsher apprehension and interpretation of the world towards Afro-diasporicknowledge and the valorization of encounters. It is in this sense that herpaintings with the clitoria ternatea flower are created through an eye-bodythat is completed with the memory of the high-pitched chants in unison of theBlack Men's Rosary festivals, the flowing capes of the king and queen of thecongado and the rhythmic gungas from Moçambique. It's a blue that inherits thedesire for sonority, for deeply blue music, like when we listen to DukeEllington's Azure.
There is aconfluent way of existing that establishes a complex and open relationship. Theblue of the clitoria ternatea also becomes the occupation of spaces, dances andsounds in movement, and time in its duration, which can be seen, for example,in the flower's oxidation process. It is through these openings to thepossibilities of existence that Dos Santos takes blue as an expanded conceptthat is established in the social, political, imagetic, textual,cinematographic and sound fields. This exhibition coincides with the completionof her PhD thesis, both dedicated to her research into painting with flowers.
Theinstallation features large-format paintings that expand throughout the space.By involving us, Dos Santos manages to bring us body to body with the color,with the explosion of textures, with the movements that draw out rhythms andgestures, with the delicacy of the violet tones of the clitoria ternatea. Herintention is to make us quiet so that we can hear the murmurs of a deep blue inthis time of color.
Khadyg Fares
