ZÉ CARLOS GARCIA . PEIXE DAS NUVENS: CRITICAL ESSAY BY DANIELA LABRA
Fascinated by such natural marvels that inspire the imagination, Zé Carlos Garcia set out to create the mythological world materialized in this solo exhibition. He is presenting a unique group of works, almost all being shown here for the first time, whose meanings unfold in dialogue with one another. These beings – part animal, part human, part object, part fruit, part deity – dwell in a fantastic society whose tangible existence results from the artist’s intense mental activity and meticulous craftsmanship. Sculpted figures and objects assembled from old wood, feathers, or horsehair configure a mystical universe of wonder and mystery. In Palavra [Word], a panel with seven units bears an ancient, hidden message to be deciphered, while other works are steeped with a more fable-like tone. One such piece is Vendo com outros olhos [Seeing with Other Eyes], a sculpture of a boy holding aloft a woman’s head that might belong to his mother, to an executioner, or perhaps to a prophetess. Works such as Múmia [Mummy], Cabeça de Bacia [Basin Head], and Peixe das Nuvens [Fish from the Clouds] likewise belong to this place of extraordinary names and enigmatic forms. This sense of enigma permeates this entire group of works, offering a mix of the unknown sprinkled with insights.
Certain works bear archetypal traits, as in Monada [Monad] – where a vertically positioned forearm and hand, with an eye in its palm, are held high on a staff of purpleheart perched atop an oval base. Garcia regards it as the exhibition’s most powerful singular element, the point toward which everything converges. In scientific usage, “monad” also denotes a simple, active, indivisible substance from which all beings are formed. These fantastic creatures, emerging from logs, trunks, and branches with their knots, veins, sinuous outlines, colors, and densities, echo the proto-surreal universe of Hieronymus Bosch.
Garcia materializes images, expressions, and gestures – not merely forms. His process demands the force of the axe, for it is the pattern of blows that calls a figure forth. He explains that the repeated strikes with the axe do not lead to psychic automatism, as the vigorous movement keeps him alert: “The blow that falls on the piece also falls on me.” Driven by the creative impulse, he rises at dawn, envisions the image, and marks the parts he will carve away. Days of mental planning and sketching precede the moment of execution, after which he may finish a piece in as little as two days, even if he suffers physically afterwards.
The woods he employs include pine, oiti, and purpleheart – often used for hoe handles because of its hardness – as well as eucalyptus. Garcia gathers the latter – an exotic species planted for pulp production – in his process of restoring the ecological integrity of his property, replacing “invasive” trees with native saplings, in an act that is simultaneously ecological and symbolic.
Zé Carlos Garcia has been sculpting objects since childhood. As a young man he enrolled in a teacher-training program and began working toward a bachelor’s degree in sculpture, abandoning the course after receiving low grades for refusing to produce realist carvings he deemed obvious and formalist, preferring conceptual explorations. In his current work, masterful technique, aesthetic reflection, and conceptual rigor converge with his long professional experience in creating props for the Rio de Janeiro carnival. Over time, he has forged a poetic cosmos beyond academic protocol, becoming one of the foremost sculptors of his generation. His visual vocabulary goes well beyond mere form – what nonsense! – to embody an enigmatic, solemn, and timeless beauty that belongs to no single word or category. It is mythology.
Daniela Labra
