Day 7 was our last day at the Reserve before we’d be embarking on a boat journey, so we were all busily working on our projects and presentations. We were expected to present our ideas, no matter in what form, on the last day of the residency. For me, I knew that the real art-making would happen when I returned to the studio. But my thoughts and impressions were definitely already being formed with this experience. I wrote a statement that I think I would like to use on a video, which will probably be as metaphorical as the other two I’ve done in the past about melting ice and coral reef degradation. With this investigation, I think I have assembled more video footage than ever before, so it might be longer than the earlier ones.
But the one thing I’ve decided is that my thoughts, narrative, ideas—will not be spoken. I want them to appear overlaid in English on the screen somehow. I want the audio to be in Portuguese and an indigenous language. So what I did that day was work with Bruna Curcio, a very able producer of LABverde, who carefully translated my writing into Portuguese and then recorded it for me. I also wanted to have the same statement recorded in an Indigenous language so that the reality of the Amazon was complete. After all, it was indigenous before it was Portuguese. Today it is a blend, and I believe it is the meeting of those two that will help save our planet. I asked Sioduhi if he would help by paraphrasing my thoughts in his native Piratapuya language, known as Tukano in Portuguese. But it was so noisy in the reading room that day, we planned to postpone his recording for a quiet time on the boat.
Everyone was scrambling to get their work done. One of the things I did during free time that day was to return to my favorite place by the pond and play with some collage ideas reminiscent of my use of burnt wood in earlier paintings. I had collected some sticks and wood as I was walking, and decided I would play with them at my favorite spot by the pond. I did some fun experimental studies, but couldn’t take any sticks out of the reserve so all that’s left is the documentation.
