Adriano Costa
VENTO, 2022
straw
23 x 90 x 55 cm
9 1/8 x 35 3/8 x 21 5/8 in
9 1/8 x 35 3/8 x 21 5/8 in
VENTO (2022) is a sculpture made of fabric and straw that references Brasilian Orixa mythology. The figure of Obaluaê, a father-divinity within the Candomble religious tradition whose face was always...
VENTO (2022) is a sculpture made of fabric and straw that references Brasilian Orixa mythology. The figure of Obaluaê, a father-divinity within the Candomble religious tradition whose face was always hidden behind dense straw and fabric, was responsible for life and death. “I had to ask for permission from my Medium to make this sculpture,” Costa admonishes. “Obaluaê was an old man who was shy because his face was full of scars. One day he was swimming in the lake and suddenly a woman called Iansã, the most beautiful woman of the Orisha pantheon approaches. She looks at him and suddenly sees his true beauty for the first time, and sees behind the mask. If you want to understand beauty you have to unfold it. To understand power, beauty, life and death, you have to unfold it.”