19/06/2018 Lívia Fernandes
Amanda Morais is the second artist presented in the Verdandi project. The 22-year-old artist currently lives in Macaé, RJ, but was born in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro. Some of her exhibitions took place at the Cinematheque of the Rio de Janeiro Art Museum – RJ, Sub Galeria – SP, Rita da Artes Macaé – RJ, Ateliê Casa 404, Boteco Vegano and in a cultural collective occupation, which calls Mucambo, in Rio das Ostras – RJ.
Since she was little, Amanda is involved with artistic and handworks. She used to transform packages into toys, drew, embroidered, made necklaces and paintings in fabrics. The photographer tells us about her trajectory in art and her creative process, and the involvement in her concepts of psychology and reflections of life. For her, art is a way of “draining her pain” and highlights in her work intuition, introspection, self-knowledge, reflection and expression.
The main purpose of her artistic work is to provoke reflection by expressing her thoughts through photography. After assimilating everything she has observed of her interactions in the world, the artist tries to express herself through her pains, anguishes, feelings and everything that has affected her. The vision she has of a being, when it is photographed by her, is based precisely on taking it out from the position of object.
Amanda reveals that “what I see will not define it, but rather, it defines my own existence, because my worldview talks about myself and not about the other.”
Below, you can check out Amanda’s statement:
I came to believe that I could use photography therapeutically to the other person, bring healing to psychological pains, but today I believe we only see as we are, and in trying to heal the other, I was actually healing myself. Today I see a mirror in front of me every time I picture someone, that mirror reflects me, it is a projection of all my questions, anguishes and disappointments, they are the reflexes of my inner self.
I seek to bring my own senses, experiments, stimulus, I seek to sit at the edge of the waterfall and listen to its sound, to really touch the leaves, to have my senses stimulated, to the point of then realizing the simplicities that are around me, and all that can contribute to my creation. A reflection, a phrase, a magnifying glass, a plastic film, an input camera, sheets and more sheets, trash, I do not need much, I need me, there, here and now.
Psychology is a great influence, I identify myself and study the Existential Phenomenological line, where it comes as a foundation to my art, bringing the understanding that it is the now, unstable, questionable, momentary, which can follow other directions, other expressions, bringing reflections on existence. It changes, just as I change myself. Ephemeral, human, profound, as the human being in the world, hence the name “Being philography”, are philosophical reflections of a being through writing by words and light.
I finish this text with the words and impressions of the curator of our team, Victor Hugo Moreeuw, who developed and improved the Verdandi idea with the first artists invited to the project:
Amanda was one of the artists I talked when I was starting to think about the Verdandi. Accompanying her work on the Instagram and some exhibitions that I had the opportunity to go, I noticed a great affection and care in what I captured and presented. The artist’s sensitivity to see the other and the ability to turn it into art are extraordinary. Her photos overflow humanity and even photographing people from different places and experiences, you can see Amanda in each photo.
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Translation: Bárbara Gual
