anna territories, drawing, 15x20cm each, 2020.
The work presented is a serie of drawings made from a research of places in the
world named as my name, Anna. In the beginning of the social isolation caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I undertook the task of searching for places in the world
named with my own name, spelled in the same way, not incorporating a second name
or the term holy. With virtual map tools and the possibility to “walk” these
virtual spaces, I began to rethink the idea of inhabited spaces and the notion of
belonging and conviviality. I found an avenue in India, small towns in the United States,
a neighborhood in the UK, lakes in Canada, an island in the Bahamas, a village in Iran.
49 places have been mapped, of which, after touring and recognizing the territory by
images, photographs and virtual walks, I draw the outline of the spaces and
keep their coordinates in a kind of catalog of spaces covered.
The drawings presented here operate more like a game of counting, like making travelers lists of visited places, like a curiosity of knowing the shape of the space that bears my name, of saving and collecting places that become affective of the proximity to unknown. More than establishing borders, they are defined as a visual record of places visited virtually. And they operate as records of an absence, such as the impossibility of physical displacement of being in the place, feeling the place and perceiving the surroundings. The surroundings here are the surroundings of the house on a virtual journey through the computer. It is a relationship between oneself and the world made possible by a device in a moment of isolation, of imposed loneliness. It is the impossibility of being in place, and the impossibility of recognizing yourself as being of the place. And in relation to this, I name this work for this communication with the coordinates of the place where I was born and spent my childhood, the place where I came from and where I am. A place that doesn’t have my name, but that I call mine.
About me:
My name is Anna Moraes (1988), I am a visual artist from Brazil, in the city of Florianópolis. I like to draw and research conceptual understandings about drawing and contemporary drawing. My process is based on the investigation of drawing possibilities through lines, lines, threads, territories, generally responding to the location and interacting with the landscape. I am part of an independent artistic collective called Nacasa, located in Florianópolis, workin in the management and curatorship of Galeria Nacasa. I teach Artistic Drawing at my studio.
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