João Freitas

By default, 14.11 - 19.12.2015
Nathan Anthony, João Freitas
Galerie Stéphanie Jaax , Brussels, Belgium

Renaissance polymath Michelangelo is said to have remarked ‘I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free’ about the making of his Angel statue (1494-1495) now situated in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bolonga, Italy. Indeed, the statement appears emblematic of the artist’s belief that his sculptures in fact already existed encased inside their marble blocks. They were revealed in form, simply by his removal of all that was extraneous from around them. Although surely quite an oversimplification of his actual process, perhaps it is possible to extend the logic of this statement, in order to examine the nuanced approach to making and content, of the works grouped together in this exhibition.

Firstly, there appears a shared strategy by both artists to some degree, in attempting to negate choice, as to how the pieces have been made, by responding directly to the inherent physical properties of the entities in question. Rather than forcibly shoehorn a pre-conceived idea and process on to an object to render meaning, it appears that certain qualities of the materials themselves have in fact provided an impetus and suggested a way of proceeding forward in their making.

In Untitled (2015), João Freitas performs a kind of archaeology, carefully chipping away at a series of composite plywood panels, removing the first veneer layer in order to expose the one unexpected coloured stratum that is nestled in the bunch.
Scuffed with random marks that index its own making, the exposed surface reveals a curious and pleasantly surprising element to an otherwise banal construction material.

And here in lies another theme common to the works of each artist; a tendency to highlight the subtle
and normally overlooked aspects of quotidian matter that surround us, but from which we have become pe- perhaps immune to by way of their ubiquity.

In Nathan Anthony’s ongoing Frames (2012 – present) a continuous intervention where an unused snooker cue-chalk is swapped for a heavily abraded one, we are presented with a slowly amassed collection of anonymous and incidental, communal concave carvings, seeming microcosms and signifiers for both geological erosion and hours of misspent youth.

Perhaps if one intentionally attempted from the outset to make these works, then one couldn’t... but now you’ve seen them, you probably could, and that is what makes them.
Perhaps a lack of action can be a conscious choice?

Nathan Anthony