Through the practice of drawing and human contact, I intend to connect with real bodies, as opposed to constructed, manipulated and fragmented bodies. I will question how imagery of the body becomes appropriated by socially constructed ideals. To do this, I will work with the Bare Oaks community in intimate acts of drawing on their skin. Naked bodies in context of nature, culture and art will inhabit an environment in which clothing, social and cultural artifact – object of consumption, identification and language – will be absent. With a performative aspect, opened to participation of the public, bodies will be support for my drawings, and the pencil will be an intermediary instrument of the relationship between artist and subject. Fine, repetitive and slightly uniform lines will enliven the body, in its genuine form, to be expressed through a garment beyond the conception of adornment. The slow experience of time during drawing, contrary to the rush that contemporary life imposes on us, will allow moments of contact, reflection, possibility, resignification and construction.
My work is born of questions I ask about the place we occupy in contemporary society, having as backdrop the relationships we establish with ourselves, with others and with objects. I examine the massed and conditioned way in which relationships take place in this society – habitat of a consumption culture, the disposable and the ephemeral – space of subjugation, objectification and inversion of roles and values. Society in which people are deprived of their human condition and their place of subject, while objects are humanized and seem to come to life. In this highly alienating space, our bodies are often instruments of manipulation – manufactured, molded and marketed – sexual objects, of worship and of consumption are programmed to communicate and interact in a predefined way. The inherent ambiguities in these relationships lead me to inquire and seek out exits capable of shaking me, or perhaps breaking, the patterns that have long been incorporated.
Eugenia Franca lives in Contagem, MG, Brazil. Graduated in Fine Arts from the Guignard School – State University of Minas Gerais – UEMG, with qualification in painting and ceramics. She has painting as the main language, but expands for drawing, objects and pottery. Author of the book “Nós Outros e Eu Mesma: Transformar o barro em cerâmica expressiva para refletir sobre as relações humanas na sociedade contemporânea” (“We Others and Myself: Transforming Clay into Expressive Ceramics to Reflect on Human Relations in Contemporary Society”). She has participated in several group exhibitions in Belo Horizonte and solo exhibitions in the state capitals of Alagoas, Maranhão and Mato Grosso do Sul – Brazil.