JOANA PASSOS
Materiality is the driving force of my work. I began to model several materials exploring their different behaviours. Throughout this process, I aim to find the materials' fragilities, what their physical and plastic qualities are and how they behave after human intervention. Also, it has always really interested me to understand the relation between weight, space and stability.
My art practice is pushing the materials to their limits, this modification phase involves folding, finding corners, creating creases and new volumes. This process has evolved to a combination of two or more materials in the same piece, and it is being carried out in rubber, metal and cement. The choice of the previously mentioned materials emerges from their qualities, complementing hardness with softness, resistance with elasticity, and permanence with changeability.
Thus, when combining suitable materials, there is a sense of belonging. An attractive force is created, trapping one material to another, freezing a moment in time, becoming one whole body. Nevertheless, there is an industrial and modernist strength influencing the appearance of the final piece, as there is no decorative manipulation and the materials are used in its raw condition.
I believe sculpture opens the door to an objecthood world. The relation between a tridimensional piece and space is intrinsic, as its installation has the power to define a space. Throughout materiality, I chose to reactivate some of the legacy left by different artists who, in the 50s and 60s, opened up new possibilities for painting through the transition from the flat surface to the origin of the object.