Gisele Camargo
Canticle of the Creatures
Curated by
BRUNNO SILVA
September.17 - DECEMBER.30.2020
In the main square in Galatina one can find the Church of the Saints Peter and Paul (Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo), its constructions started in 1633 with significant restoration works after the 1743’s earthquake. Its nave and side ailes contain high vaulted ceilings supported by painted columns. The church is a remarkable example of Renaissance influences that were carried through the Baroque period, illustrating that often such stylistic decisions would intertwine and vary across Italy, especially outside the big centers like Rome or Venice. Taking these columns as an example, instead of a Solomonic column here we have a column formed by four semi columns that instead of real marble are painted to create an illusion of stone.
Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo, painted wall (detail). With the permission of the Uff. Beni Culturali dell’Arcidiocesi di Otranto. Image by Elizabeth Rubino.
Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo, nave view, With the permission of the Uff. Beni Culturali dell’Arcidiocesi di Otranto. Image by Elizabeth Rubino.
The abstract paintings by Gisele Camargo share this allusion to other processes found in nature. In her series Erosions, Camargo engages in a long process with the canvas to loosely emulate the variations of textures and colour found in underground landscapes where natural elements jointly create innumerous combinations of minerals and earth, each crafting a unique coloration and feel.
Gisele Camargo, studio view
Erosions VII (detail), Gisele Camargo.
If in the columns the objective is to create the illusion of stone, in Camargo’s painting the interest is to rather recreate some of the process that ultimately will result in such visual wonders. With a detachment from spatial notions, the composition becomes simultaneously a micro and macro view of these processes, or altogether something different in relation to its viewer.
Erosion VII, Gisele Camargo
Also present in Galatina’s Chiesa Madre – denomination given to the main church in a city – is a stone that St. Peter, according to the tradition, sat when stopped in Galatina, on his way to Rome. The stone itself, as with many other relics, functions as a totem of faith, of belief in a system of meaning that belongs to those that share a religion and a space. Similarly it could be argued that contemporary art also exists in a shared space of beliefs and concepts, where very simple efforts can carry deep connections to thinking and aesthetics.
Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo, St. Peter’s stone. With the permission of the Uff. Beni Culturali dell’Arcidiocesi di Otranto. Image by Elizabeth Rubino.
the construction of the mini worlds, Gisele Camargo.
Camargo’s interest in nature is also the raw material for her collages titled the building of the small worlds, the artist describes this series as studies and a way into her larger painting practice. The collages are built by the compilation of elements cut out of photographs taken by Gisele herself, in this composition's places and times intertwined. This series is also the starting point to Camargo’s series titled Brutos.
In Brutos III (image below) we can almost recognise the rocks and natural elements present in the collages, or perhaps a nod to the process that culminated in the Erosion series mentioned before. Ultimately, the abstract painting opens itself for the viewer eye to unravel whatever meaning or feeling that might lay on its surface. A surface created in the liminal space between the undisturbed background and the textural element that seems to ground itself as much as its captures our gaze.
Brutos III, Gisele Camargo.