ALIEN OBJECTS
digital photography + digital collage on white canvas [130 x 200 cm each]
+ animation [projection in the gallery space]
2014
Throughout 2014 the government set to carry out yet another palliative initiative to depollute Pampulha Lagoon in Brasil. Despite being highly polluted, Pampulha Lagoon is renowned for its beautiful sights and for being the habitat of wild animals like capybaras, herons, kingfishers, and crocodiles. As the ‘cleaning’ process started, the lagoon was suddenly turned into a work site comprised of heavy equipment, dense dust, piles of trash and mud, and even stinkier water. This proposed infrastructure work not only failed to improve the lagoon water but also destroyed nests, animal shelters, and killed dozens of capybaras.
In my photographs I captured the work-site machines and detached them from Pampulha's landscape, as in my mind they did not belong to this (formerly) pleasant area.Yet, throughout this process, I also assured that the work could be a place for Pampulha Lagoon to leave its imprint: like a mirror that could reveal the disturbance those alien objects had engraved in that wildlife site.