Once Upon a Time... by Catarina Silva

Artist list

Catarina Silva

It all begins with the encounter

Catarina Silva started by collecting, for a few years, the colored wrappings of chocolates and the next step was to use them in her works. From the ideas already explored by the artist – fantasy, humor and symbology – this new material allows conceptual associations to chocolate itself as a calming but also aphrodisiac nourishment. Therefore, to review these singular roles associated to what is desirable and sometimes forbidden, bring to the present the exact moment of the memory associated to the circumstance in which they were received, tasted and shared. As we know, memory is changeable and transforms itself each time it is revisited and, in this way, Catarina also explores the way we deal with our memories and how we often change them and even confabulate them. In this sense, how do we deal with memory and where do the feelings that contain it go? The artist seems to transmute in the form of jewels in which not only her memories are condensed, but also, potentially, those of all viewers who project their experiences in them, transforming themselves into living objects of symbolism and significance.

Formally made from traditional jewellery techniques, they have similarities with Victorian mourning jewels, with their oval shapes and memorial heritage. On the other hand, we can also find small and loving secrets engraved on the various metallic surfaces, inscriptions that reveal poetic intentions that register and add value, as much as they seem to point to locations and fantasies. For example, Once upon a time… (coinciding with the name of the exhibition) or He has the most tender eyes, two necklaces that include images in which the main action is hidden, which makes us deviate our eyes in search of what seems to stand beyond the intelligible or even, by chance, within the work itself. And Mantilha, a complex and recognizable object inventively woven, veils a mystery and a gesture of privacy and intimacy. Moreover, with grooves and complex connections, in this idealized reverberation of romantic love, they were conceived as a duo: pairs of complementarities that reaffirm the primordial idea of a total emotional correspondence.

Love, when it is given and manifests itself, endows those who are touched with something very deep that changes irreversibly, in an exordial bursting impulse. Suddenly, there is an amazement and we will no longer be the same. There is something which connects and that ignescence is the surprise that gives life back to us and its enchantment as engine and proposal for change. But what makes a good encounter? Spinoza tells us that a good encounter happens when there is an increase in power and, consequently, an increase in the capacity to exist. In truth, there should be no greater aspiration than the force of life and the will to transcend, for it reminds us of what is the best in us and how much we want to authentically share with the world, we are after all beings of connection and language. But could it be that if we knew beforehand that it would be a disaster we would refuse to participate in the encounter? Or is it always worth while? Perhaps from the confrontation something precious and unexpected will come out. French Kiss, a paradoxical image of a car accident seems to remind us precisely of the power of the encounter, of the love that can hurt and shine, simultaneously. In its turn, the idea of Amor fati seems to be present, the love of destiny, that describes an attitude where one sees everything that occurs in life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at least, as necessary. It is characterized by the acceptance of the events or situations that occur in life and perhaps humor, which is also present in these pieces, can be a certain form of love of destiny, a way of implicating and assuming oneself in a specific situation or denouement: the assumption and the overcoming. It seems to me that humor can be a pacifying agent and works as affirmation on the authorship and on the choice of the contours of our own story. Once again, it is very evident that for Catarina Silva that is a primordial vehicle to feel, experience and aesthetically translate life. To me it seems very generous because it enables us to also be part of that voyage, with enthusiasm.

Once upon a time is an ode to love, a sensitive translation of its paradoxes and the way with which we deal with memory and its complexity. Love will always be ambivalence, vertigo and transformation, a result of the shock waves of the concrete event that hopelessly transforms us.

/ Carolina Quintela
Lisbon, September 2023 


The opening reception is on the 14th of October from 17:00 to 21:00.
The exhibtion runs until the 18th of November.