PAULO ROMÃO BRAIS – Dark Parables

Along his career, Paulo Romão Brás has been developing a creative production process, which can hardly be labeled under a technique, a specific language or style. Neither specialization nor unity is part of this artist’s work, whose creativity does not accept a pre-determined route. Brás makes use of several language and technical resources, in series that underline interdisciplinary dialogues.  

 

Both the heterogeneity and multiplicity that one can find in Brás’ work are equally present in his method, which, among other ways, resorts to appropriation and decontextualization of references and materials. 

 

In “Dark Parables”, the artist works with an aesthetics of appropriation, combining uncommon artistic techniques and processes: starting with old photos of anonymous people that he collects over time, Brás digitally works on drawings and images, transforming certain aspects of the composition and overlapping details of great graphic diversity. 

 

The results are works that place the viewer before unexpected details. The plastic composition is established between what was photographed and what was drawn, resulting in a hybrid complicity, such as a suggestive game of association and overlapping, which oneiric effect dissolves the “reality” aspect of photographic representation. 

More than a creator of shapes or a photo collector, in this series, Brás triggers metaphoric articulations and, from one image to another, he explores the archive photo creative process pathways. 

 

Here, photography is, above anything else, a reminisce, a background, a trail of frozen memories and sentimental value that acquire intriguing contours, through informal, free experiments that call on the subversive and transformative power of drawing.

 

Sandra Vieira Jürgens