To (re)Draw Firmino
Afinidades in Contemporary Jewelry, exhibition, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, Porto, 2024
sterling silver, wood, metal, rubber
Oh, the thrill of walking into a drawing classroom! The easels displayed in a circle, the kind of stage on which the model is exposed, the infinite possibility of points of view, and the tension in the air. Centre of attention and destination of all eyes. In real life, the human body carries layers and relationships, a casing for feelings, secrets and memories. It is now a mere object on display, observed in detail – removed from its human dimension but still breathing in each line. Lines that define the direction of a look or a gesture, sums of angles, contours and proportions. It’s an object that moves; however, that is transfigured, that reflects tension and emotions – that will be crystallised in a personal interpretation, conditioned by the fleetingness of a moment and the artistic capacity of the author.
What support to use? What kind of medium? Should we choose the graphite gradation or the pen’s decided stroke? The determinant occupation of the sheet, the framing, the scale – space and time: a sketch of minutes or detailed drawing of hours? Where to start? Or even more complicated: how to know when it’s finished?
Then comes the critical look, the eventual evaluation, and the certainty that we could have done better—yes, we will, next time. Because the act of drawing and creating, although it may be born from inspiration, is only perfected with practice.
Firmino by Soares dos Reis recalled the feeling of freedom, the always incomplete work of a drawing, of the creative process that begins on paper and is transformed into painting, sculpture, a building, into a final work. In the piece “To (re)Draw Firmino”, elements appear that refer to the academic universe of the act of learning to draw: the guiding lines of the model’s posture drawn geometrically in silver, fragments of the articulated wooden mannequin that helps to sharpen the imagination when the model is absent – they try to allude here to what is missing from Firmino that Soares dos Reis reduced to a bust. In an act of play, the mannequin’s body also supports the necklace when it’s not being used, which, removed from the context of the body, is also an object of adornment that leaves room for the imagination.
