neurotríptico

At the invitation of artist Paulo Damásio, I contributed the text for NEUROTRÍPTICO, his solo exhibition that opened at Martha Pagy Escritório de Arte on Saturday, July 1. The show presented a selection of recent, previously unseen paintings produced during the artist’s new phase in São Paulo. The text follows below:

neurotríptico

open your mouth and close your eyes. can you feel the paper? don’t swallow, leave it under your tongue. put some music on, something upbeat. turn off the lights - leave that pink one on - yeah. do you feel anything? me neither, I don't think it hit, I don't know, it didn't taste bitter. what if - wait, check out that shadow. this isn't normal. turn up the volume, listen to this bass. give me some candy, some sweet, even an ice cream, I need sugar and stimuli. turn on the videogame, I wanna press all your buttons. have you tried touching this curtain? like this, real slow, as someone touching their first love. by the way.

of everything our eyes and fingers capture, we process only infinitesimal parts - daily and neurotipically focused we sacrifice, in the name of efficiency in living, our infinite capacity to direct our attention to the details of form, putting our senses to utilitarian use for the task at hand (oh how good it must feel to have a beginning middle and end). lysergic hunger, like the aesthetic disposition or hiperfocused rapture, directs our sight touch hearing movements to the world in a happily afunctional fashion, freeing the body from the duty of being a machine and allowing it to become phenomenological experiment. painting, where the layering of materials is a key element, appears to the dedicated observer as a colourful abyssal trench ready to swallow them, a trip of oils and gesso.

hold on, grab the scissors, roll us another one. everything's so blurry. but in a good way. take a deep breath, can you feel your alveoli? let's talk, what do you want from life? you can be anything: in this haze, life is plastic (and fantastic) - with willpower and VR goggles you can live in a much happier chicken coop. we can travel, we can leave the country, we can breath a different air, grow other muscles, try other flavours. our minds contain explosions katamaris fires and multitudes. is it possible to feel too much?

but now I'm hungry, is anything open at this hour? I think just the gas station sandwiches. turn off the lights, close the window, the sun's already coming up, let's leave the multitudes for after breakfast.