In the swan's neck
Mais Silva Gallery, porto, 2026
© Photo credits: Filipe Braga / Mais Silva Gallery
In the swan's neck (2026)
Installation view.
In the Swan’s Neck begins as a speculative exercise centred on a collection of anecdotes drawn from the life of the German artist Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948), particularly during his period of exile in Britain.
It is said that the first room in Ambleside where Schwitters lived was owned by a very fussy landlady. She was constantly dictating what could and could not be done in the space, and she had a white carpet which she treasured so much that she felt it necessary to impose how many times the artist could enter the house, who would often arrive home dirty after having been painting outdoors. This discomfort, caused by the inescapable feeling of being regarded as an intruder in that new space, became the main inspiration for the creation of these images.
In the Swan’s Neck proposes a dialogue with the domestic architecture and the whiteness of Mais Silva Gallery, in Porto, through the use of two materials: smoke and carpets. The works presents a tension between control and expansion, organicity and constraint, at times extending the whiteness of the walls, at others attempting to break with it, by using the smoke drawings to introduce cracks, mould, dirt and other imperfections into an excessively clean environment.
In the Swan's neck invokes the imaginary of fables to conceive a space where the presence of the body is constantly being negotiated.
© Photo credits: Filipe Braga / Mais Silva Gallery
In the swan's neck (2026)
Installation views.
Installation composed by:
1) Smoke on wood prepared with acrylic paint (variable dimensions).
2) Rugs.
© Photo credits: Joana Patrão e Tiago Madaleno
A dim bulb (2026),
Shoe box, led, rug.
Shoe box dimensions: 21,7 x 34 x 14 cm.
Rug dimensions: 108 x 204 cm.
© Photo credits: Joana Patrão and Tiago Madaleno
In the swan's neck (2026).
Details.
© Photo credits: Tiago Madaleno
In the swan's neck (2026),
Smoke on wood prepared with acrylic paint.
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There will be no more creatures under the rugs. (2026), 50,8 x 41 cm.
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Perhaps your name will begin to seem foreign to you, as if you could no longer recognise it. (2026), 43,5 x 41,3 cm.
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The frightened larvae, crawling across the floor in search of refuge, will vanish. (2026), 50,8 x 41 cm.
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The suspended song of the flies will be swallowed up by a deluge of white, and in the reflection of its waters one will be able to read that the reckless joy of flight will have to wait.. (2026), 47 x 70 cm.
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The summer ended with the conviction that the first prize had been awarded by mistake. Silent and puerile. (2026), 49 x 38,7 cm.
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During the bonfire season, the memory of heat will be the new law, the animals’s roars will come from the creaking of wood stretching, and the house will no longer have a place for you. (2026), 41 x 50,8 cm.
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All houses are governed by principles of exclusion. (2026), 63,5 x 51 cm.
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The desire for comfort lies hidden behind a disciplined fervour. (2026), 77 x 54 cm.
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The meaning of fables will remain hidden beneath the snow that has accumulated on the page. (2026), 41 x 50,8 cm.
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One will begin to question their value. (2026), 49 x 38,7 cm.
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The swans will be fantasies, almost shadows, in the juggling of curved fingers. (2026), 50,8 x 41 cm.
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Fingers themselves, also wrapped in white bandages, adorned with orthopaedic rings, as if pretending to be in a wedding ceremony, with all its vows and commitments. (2026), 50,8 x 41 cm.
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The dogs’ barks will have no owner once again, they will be the voice of universal suffering. (2026), 44,3 x 59,5 cm.
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Images so cruel, that they only allow to be glimpsed for a brief moment, before the mist covers them once more. (2026), 50,8 x 41 cm.
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The flowers will rest upon their lost freshness with the mournful delight of a colourful bouquet. (2026), 50,8 x 41 cm.
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From their petals will fall a black soot, a sort of inverted dew or ghostly manifestation of a nature still accustomed to ancient rituals. (2026), 47 x 70 cm.
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This crying will have to be wiped away with the same animalistic haste with which one rushes to a newborn baby. (2026), 49,5 x 44,3 cm.
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Without hesitation, with clenched, merciless teeth. (2026), 50,8 x 41 cm.
© Photo credits: Tiago Madaleno
In the swan's neck (2026),
Smoke on wood prepared with acrylic paint.
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Just the muffled sound of an unrestrained clock. (2026), 41 x 50,8 cm.
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Perhaps new nests will form in the darkest corners of the house, where the blindness cannot reach with the same intensity. But not just yet. (2026), 54 x 77 cm.
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From the walls will emerge, with increasing insistence, the rules, the regulations, the implied notations, the corrections, the little preferences, the time schedules that have always constituted the score of the space. (2026), 62 x 74 cm.
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Here too, the furniture must be made silent, so that only the ticking of the clock lodged in the throat could be sensed. (2026), 62 x 74 cm.
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Moral lessons will no longer be found in the mouths of animals. (2026), 41 x 50,8 cm.
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Fingers that had, until then, grown unaccustomed to touch, so they could give themselves over to dance. (2026), 41 x 50,8 cm.
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The night will lie hidden beneath the brightness of feathers, reduced to a pointless ambition. (2026), 47 x 70 cm.
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The inspiration for the altar of porcelain images, so polished that their shine blends with the paleness of the wall. (2026), 41 x 50,8 cm.
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With the same frenzy with which one pursues happiness in an insensitive world. (2026), 41 x 50,8 cm.