Antonio Obá
Fábula dos Erês, 2019
oil on canvas
70 7/8 x 141 3/4 in
180 x 360 cm
180 x 360 cm
The ‘Fábula dos Erês’ is a work that comes at a time when I begin to research these roots. In fact, it encapsulates an idea of an interior scene. It...
The ‘Fábula dos Erês’ is a work that comes at a time when I begin to research these roots. In fact, it encapsulates an idea of an interior scene. It seems that the figures are inside a house, in a domestic environment and they have a feeling of familiarity when I talk about their roots. It concerns the personal situation that I myself research into, within the characteristics of the family, of course, through a memory reinvention and this attitude being contextualized in a situation that reflects the larger objective situations. So, this starts by investigating the minimum, but projecting in that minimum a larger universe, and part of an intimate universe for a universe of greater social, cultural unfolding...
There's a kind of situation where these three main figures are. There are two children framing this older figure, an ancestral figure. Like figures drawn for the spectator, they stand in plain sight, but find themselves in an incognito setting, in which perspectives do not match. Nothing is exatcly. It's a kind of labyrinth in the clarity, and it reflects the whole meaning I give to those deep roots, which is a kind of entering a familiar labyrinth. And then, of course, it will have self-referential elements.
I took the boy from a childhood photo of me, the central figure is of my grandfather and within that it is a kind of fantastic narrative that dialogues with elements of the Candomblé tradition and of the Catholic tradition, since the idea of syncretism is very most latent in this period of 2019. The tree refers to a candomblé entity. If I'm not mistaken, Iroko. At the same time, it makes a reference to the strange fruit once I hang these bodies. So, when I put this work in this way, like figures presenting themselves in front of the viewer, it's a fabled way of contact. Maybe they want to tell this fable that happens, but that doesn't stop being complex and labyrinthine.
There will be references there, of course. The throne where the central figure is seated is an African throne that was an addressee for authorities, within a tradition. The girl at the bottom of the painting cutting some fruit has this idea of a cut and that fruit is almost a meat too. Anyway, they end up ending a whole fabulation where the glory and the people are kept. And then, as a core, they show a lot of that. As core of the spheres, which refer a lot to an idea of mourning, of transformation, of passage.
There's a kind of situation where these three main figures are. There are two children framing this older figure, an ancestral figure. Like figures drawn for the spectator, they stand in plain sight, but find themselves in an incognito setting, in which perspectives do not match. Nothing is exatcly. It's a kind of labyrinth in the clarity, and it reflects the whole meaning I give to those deep roots, which is a kind of entering a familiar labyrinth. And then, of course, it will have self-referential elements.
I took the boy from a childhood photo of me, the central figure is of my grandfather and within that it is a kind of fantastic narrative that dialogues with elements of the Candomblé tradition and of the Catholic tradition, since the idea of syncretism is very most latent in this period of 2019. The tree refers to a candomblé entity. If I'm not mistaken, Iroko. At the same time, it makes a reference to the strange fruit once I hang these bodies. So, when I put this work in this way, like figures presenting themselves in front of the viewer, it's a fabled way of contact. Maybe they want to tell this fable that happens, but that doesn't stop being complex and labyrinthine.
There will be references there, of course. The throne where the central figure is seated is an African throne that was an addressee for authorities, within a tradition. The girl at the bottom of the painting cutting some fruit has this idea of a cut and that fruit is almost a meat too. Anyway, they end up ending a whole fabulation where the glory and the people are kept. And then, as a core, they show a lot of that. As core of the spheres, which refer a lot to an idea of mourning, of transformation, of passage.