Looking for Rita
Underdogs Capsule
Solo Show
Lisbon, novembro 2021

 

 

An exploration on the manipulation of appearances and the fabrication of images, intimately linked to the metamorphosis of great Hollywood icons. In this case, using the construction of Rita Hayworth, born Margarita Carmen Cansino, who was transformed from a brunette dancer playing roles as a Latina, to an incandescent American muse of the 1940s. A mutation that mirrors the reality of the medium most used by the studio in its artwork: tile, which in turn is a product adapted to industry in order to please a common taste, idealized for mass consumption.

 

 

Paintings that depart and return: from the motifs of 17th Century manually painted tiles to industrial tile, and back to the hand-made, now within the decisive lines of the watercolours where blots and colours work together to import the refined and individual details of each drawing. An exercise in the interiorization of motifs, patterns, rhythms, colours and techniques under analysis for future extrapolations within the graphic universe of this collection of industrial Portuguese tile-making.

 

 

This body of work comprising twelve watercolours, resulting from work presented during the pandemic for the Underdogs online exhibition, stems from the preparatory drawing for a tile panel edition that will be developed with Underdogs and Viúva Lamego in the future.

in Underdogs website