Katie van Scherpenberg Brazilian, b. 1940
Jardim Vermelho [Red Garden], 1986
Series of photographs taken at Escola de Arte Visuais, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Scherpenberg's landscape 'interventions' are an extension of her paintings. Her time in Amapá on the island of Santana by the Amazon river in 1968 with her father, just north of...
Scherpenberg's landscape 'interventions' are an extension of her paintings. Her time in Amapá on the island of Santana by the Amazon river in 1968 with her father, just north of the Amazon River had a significant impact on her use of natural materials in her painting, later informing her work in the landscape. As curator Alberto Saraiva notes, 'she lacked paint on this island and…researched local soils and anilines for her drawings and paintings'. The artist's installation and intervention works in landscape are a testament to the role of the Amazon as a the primary place which feeds and sustains her practice.
The Jardim Vermelho (Red Garden) in Rio de Janeiro (1986) saw the artist cover a garden in red iron oxide, alluding to her memory of the mud left by the Amazon on the banks of the pororoca (tidal bore). As weeks passed, the pigment faded, restoring the garden to its original colour. Scherpenberg's awareness of the passing of time is central to the work, where the use of application of the pigment is ephemeral and passing, in opposition to the comparative permanence of oil paint.
The Jardim Vermelho (Red Garden) in Rio de Janeiro (1986) saw the artist cover a garden in red iron oxide, alluding to her memory of the mud left by the Amazon on the banks of the pororoca (tidal bore). As weeks passed, the pigment faded, restoring the garden to its original colour. Scherpenberg's awareness of the passing of time is central to the work, where the use of application of the pigment is ephemeral and passing, in opposition to the comparative permanence of oil paint.