Nascer Uma Vez Após a Outra Sonia Gomes

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Nascer Uma Vez Após a Outra, Sonia Gomes
I made these pieces because I need protection. nests. but this thought, about why I made, or make, them came later. it's funny, first I make them, then I think about them. I believe that the things in our subconscious are much more important than the act of thinking. Each day I'm more certain that thought is composed of things that we are already familiar with, that are on the surface, a very thin layer that includes reason. this is how it's always been.

When the pieces are taking shape, when I've already put a lot of work into them, I think to myself why am I doing this? things appear that I'm not familiar with. I have difficulty in expressing myself, my expression is entirely in my work, I mean, verbal expression, that which is expressed by language. then I start to read things, I find similarities in a book like this one by bachelard, the poetics of space. the result is that my work is more and more poetic, this is how I see it. except my tool isn't the poetry of the word. isn't this here poetry? it comes from the soul, and now it speaks of these places: the crib, the nest, the cage, as a form of liberation.

The cage, for example, is a form of release, don't you think? aesthetically, the cage is a wonderful object, but its function is to imprison. a cage with nothing inside it is a beautiful thing. it's a completely empty place. so I open the cage wider, that's the first thing I do, I twist the entire thing, I really open it, and I transform the cage into a cozy place. the cage as a nest. there's another nest that I call crib. the nest is a crib and vice-versa. I don't remember if I had a crib. I remember having a bed, but I don't remember a crib. the crib, just like the nest, shelters the being in its most fragile state, protecting it. they are places, habitats.

I think now of my mother's womb, to which I would often like to able to return. or to have never left. to this day, I sleep in the fetal position, is that normal? and I always build nests, cribs, in life. if there is a possibility of me working in another city, for example, I don't know how to arrive at a warehouse and start working. first I need to fill the space. I reconstruct my world everywhere I go. and if there isn't such a place, if I'm unable to reconstruct, I can't stay. no matter where it is, how big it is, I have to reconstruct myself in there. and my place is made of simple things, objects that I collect, things that I like to look at. like a bird really, which grabs whatever is within reach. I always observed the way birds build their nests. they use what they have. once a cousin of mine came to my house with a nest she had found. I kept observing the way it had been woven, what it contained. there was even a piece of fabric in the base, I think it was an urban bird. they sew, they bind, they tie together everything they find, whatever they manage to carry. they make the nest into a uterus outside the body, and being there, being taken care of there, is like preparing yourself to be born. again. personally, I think that I was born a second time sixteen years ago, when I incorporated my work into myself. and I still feel this way. I lie down in the fetal position, I construct these places of protection. if we stay watchful in this life, we can always be born, time and again.

Sonia Gomes was born in 1948, Caetanópolis, Minas Gerias, Brazil, where she was a primary teatcher at 16 years until 26 years. She lives and works at Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Sonia Gomes gratuated in Advocacy by Faculdade de Sete Lagoas – Minas Gerais, Brazil. Gomes started her career as an artist at age of 45 years old, since then she participated at diverses group exhibitions, Sonia Gomes is represented by Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil and Lehmann Maupin, New York, USA. 

Born in 1984 in Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil, Júlia Rebouças currently lives in Belo horizonte. She is an art curator, critic and researcher, since 2007, she has worked at Instituto Inhotim where she holds the position of curator. She earned a doctorate and a master's degree in the graduate program for Visual Arts at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Faculdade de Sete Lagoas – Minas Gerais, Brazil.


– Júlia Rebouças
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