Facsimile of a Breeze, 2019

Sao Miguel, Azores (PT)

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Curated by The Decorators
Photography by Sara Pinheiro


The installation is a chart made of perishable materials to reflect on the impossibility of mapping. Maps, as cultural artefacts, consist of ever-shifting sediments deposited by human desire, imagination and expectation.

Sabrina Island was an islet formed in 1811 by a submarine volcanic eruption off São Miguel in Azores. The first person to land in the new island was Commander James Tillard, a British captain who hoisted the Union Jack there. Following his claim of sovereignty for Great Britain, Tillard returned to the Azores but the island had disappeared.

Inspired by this example of the upturning of natural forces, the installation is comprised of a three-dimensional metal grid inside which lie perishable changing objects. The installation defies any attempt at measuring and rejects fixed notions of form and scale, proposing instead an evolving irresolution between matter and representation.