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This artwork is part of the series Camouflaged Nature - What needs to be masked to (r)es/xist socially?
In these new works I have been thinking, among other things, about this condition of opposition to the common idea of landscape as something outdoors, on a large scale - a great horizon, OUTSIDE of us. Landscape only as something natural. If landscape is always outside of us, are we artificial?
Landscape as a refuge, but perhaps an internal, emotional and intimate landscape. Then, there is also the social landscape. Camouflaged Nature brings to the debate the fact that we are always facing the obligation to socially hide/disguise our truest nature, our "true colors" (camouflage is about imitating the colors and patterns of a given environment, to blend in and disappear). We constantly have to mask and camouflage ourselves, to be “equal” and accepted, changing personas for each environment we find ourselves in.
What led this Navy Officer to write, besides his name, and in different colors, things like "Shoo, shoo envy", "Understanding, Calm, Serenity", "Patience, Health, Peace and Love" (curiously, in pink), among many others? What feelings, desires, anxieties, fears and goals could be there, hidden next to his head? |