BEATRIZ MANTEIGAS X BCBY Collab

Vaigotas is a word invented by my two-year-old daughter, Maria, used as a noun to describe what we call seagulls. Nothing new – just another letter-swap, like so many others made by toddlers – and yet so full of intention. The term “vaigotas” – like “gulls” – is a sound, with a written correspondence, meant to designate certain seabirds. However, the term “gulls” – like “seagulls” – contains nothing objectively inherent to the creature, and its relation to the animal in question is just as valid in one case as in the other. And yet, not a single bird flies past us without prompting a confident point of the finger and the vocative: “vaigota!” Who am I to say it’s not a “gull” but a “seagull”? Where do I get the certainty or authority to correct Maria? If she has so many certainties – and I so many doubts – why can’t I adapt?

The same questions can be asked of acting, of performance. What makes a simple elongated “M” any less of a seagull than a naturalistic drawing? If this animal is caricatured and wears a hat, does it become something else – or is it still a seagull, just one wearing a hat? How can we imagine a seagull in a hat if we’ve never seen one?

This question may seem like a frivolous invitation to anarchy, but it also serves as a warning about the fragility of our institutions, and how, in the absence of absolute truth or reality, it becomes our responsibility to construct meaning from fragments and clippings of information, from consideration for the other, and from our own intention.

From this reflection came the series of works that, following the same modus operandi and formats, play with these variants – proposing compositions that range from quasi-scientific representations to more analytical, almost ethereal approaches, covered in abstract or translucent layers that reinforce the shared fragility between words and images.

The same series also gave rise to a book by the artist, bearing the same title. With its transparent pages, the book mimics this construction of possible truths, in an evolutionary process moving from the indistinct to the secret depths of knowledge – only to begin again.

May the intention be a good one.

CHUVA | In the creative process behind the aforementioned Artist’s Book, the intention to visually appropriate the sound of rain (whether natural or televised) emerged as a metaphorical solution to the creative time between research and early artistic exploration. To find this, several experiments were conducted – through drawing, painting, and printmaking. A mixture of the three was chosen, in which each mark results from a gesture that, like the rain, falls vertically on the paper. A single blade of grass soaked in Indian ink was used to record this motion (later replicated mechanically).

REALITY | The “Reality” pattern originated from one of the pages of the same publication, where the word itself – in Portuguese – sinks into a white background. However, to better respond to the challenge and ecological values of BCBY, a new layer of oil paint was added. This layer serves as a direct reference to Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Bauman – a significant philosophical reference for the artist.