Tadáskía

At the very beginning of Ave preta mística [Mystical Black Bird] (2022), Tadáskía’s first book of loose pages, the artist announces that the words that follow are dedicated to her allies. Guiding us through the flight, she presents herself as a sister and embodies the bird that addresses the members of her confraternity. She is among us, but the haughty vibration of her words surpasses her amiable tone and positions her as the matriarch of the flock, “the mother of the house.” We join her in her dreamlike flight and, as if in prayer, with every turn of a page, with every beat of a wing, we realize in her verses that a life without ties is a constant and collective exercise.

The work is divided into bilingual texts, with references to the black feminist thinker Audre Lorde, and drawings of different colors and thicknesses, which look like “ruffled feathers.” The crooked and curved lines traced on those pages, whether in her verses or in her drawings, are the matrix gesture of Ave preta mística. The alternation between the writing and the pages with colored images provides the shape and rhythm of the narrative. Like the formation of a flock, each part of the book is a singular expression: they are elements that relate to each other and reconfigure themselves with each new passage.

For the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, in addition to presenting the book’s pages spatialized in a room, Tadáskía will exhibit a set of works that derive from materials that are common in her output: three sculptures made of bamboo, straw, and cattail, similar in shape but with different elements at their base – in the first of them, a plate with sewn eggs; in the second, a selection of fruits that must be consumed by the public and the institution’s staff or be renewed before deteriorating; in the third, a quantity of face powder of different colors. On the inner wall of the room, Tadáskía will display a large-scale drawing made of dry pastels and charcoal.

thiago de paula souza, translated from Portuguese by philip somervell

Tadáskía (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1993) works with drawing, photography, installation and textiles, creating imagined and mystical landscapes. Through her research and production, she also seeks to elaborate the imaginative experiences of the Black diaspora concerning family and foreign encounters. Among her recent exhibitions are 37th Panorama da Arte Brasileira (São Paulo, Brazil), Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (New York, USA), Triangle Astérides (Marseille, France), Framer Framed (Amsterdam, Netherlands). Tadáskía’s works are part of the collection of Instituto Inhotim (Brumadinho, MG, Brazil), Museu de Arte do Rio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, Instituto Cultural Çarê (São Paulo, Brazil), as well as private collections.