Juliana Cerqueira Leite

Blind Spot, 2013

Blind Spot produced in situ for the solo exhibition, Posicional [Positional], at Casa Triângulo gallery, São Paulo, Brazil.The mold for this sculpture is a dark environment with only one entrance, located at the height of the artist’s back. The structure is made of wood and plywood following the dimensions of the body that moves within the mold maintaining a fixed central standing on the ground. The arms and legs are extended repeatedly, protruding in all directions away from the vertical axis of the body and tracing the circumference of their total range. As these round movements reach the artist’s back they also reach their physical limits, their circularity deformed by the bending of the arms and legs, leaving a blind spot. A ton and a half of clay covers the interior surface of the mold creating a layer of 15 cm thick, which captures the gestures of the body through the contact with its extremities. The material ‘remembers’ precisely the touch and movement of the hands and feet creating furrows and concavities as they are dragged against the surface of this malleable mnemonic environment. The negative form of the clay is transformed into a detailed map of the imperfect circumference of the body’s movements. It is then covered with layers of liquid latex, a natural rubber that captures every detail and material traces that remained in the clay in positive convex shapes. The latex is applied until it reaches a thickness that gives the sculpted form strength and endurance, and a good memory. This material is then peeled off the clay wall creating a sculptural object that defines and unifies all gestures and physical limits of the actions that took place inside the mold.

Exhibitions 

Posicional / Positional, 2013, Casa Triângulo, São Paulo, Brazil