Uirá is a series of 7 framed inkjet prints. These prints were made as solar photograms, using the sun as an enlarger then fixing and washing the print in a darkroom.
Each artwork is a documentation of materials sourced either from the home of the artist’s family, or at House Conspiracy, where he has been Artist in Residence for the past 6 weeks.
The abstracted aesthetics of Uirá, which are resultant of the photogram process, embrace and emphasise the artist’s own abstracted perceptions of his mother’s life and her time in Bahia, Brazil. It is through this process that the artist is able to reconnect with materials of his matrilineal heritage, and in doing so, to reclaim and sustain the complex cultural customs of Bahia. These documented materials hold a nostalgic quality to the artist, metonyms and memories of the places they came from and the history that brought them into his family home.
By combining materials found during his residency with his familial materials, the artist weaves his familial history into his own life and activities; a potent synthesis of cultural and artistic practices, as well as maternal and filial stories, histories and trajectories.