ELIZABETH DORAZIO’S JOURNEY AS AN ARTIST: MOMENTS AND STAGES ALONG THE WAY by Marie Christiane Seiferth

The work and compositions that are part of the current exhibition are the artistic expression of a long, intense journey, meticulous and interesting, traveled along different routes towards an approximation with the complex themes of “life”, “organism” and “cosmos”. Shortly after concluding her degree course at the celebrated Fundação Escola Guignard in the city of Belo Horizonte, and after a study period at the Istituto per il L’arte and Restore in Florence, in the series Homo Olympicus, Elizabeth Dorazio exhibited acrylic paintings on canvas that featured the human torsos of athletes, particularly swimmers in swimwear, and that can be regrouped as diptychs, both arbitrary and infinite. During this phase, the principle of deconstruction and reconstruction, with a view to reordering, is already an integral part of her work as a means of expression. It is a stage preceded by a comprehensive study of anatomy and the muscular system of the human body. During this period, Elizabeth Dorazio also began to paint on synthetic materials. With her quick thick brush strokes, the trunk of the swimmers is moulded onto shower curtains, establishing a direct link between the motif and the location of the painting.

In 1998, with the spatial installation Mantra in Morumbi, a district in São Paulo, Elizabeth Dorazio returned to the all-encompassing motif of the cosmos and of the internal nexus that exists between all beings of the universe. This oil painting, measuring 3.20 x 5.40 m, was installed in the place of an altar from an ancient chapel reminiscent of the time when the city was founded. The energy attributed to the location and the expressive representative energy that emanates from this work seem to make the force of the masses of falling water and the restless foam almost palpable. Although the work portrays an instantaneous situation, the overwhelming impression is that of a permanent waterfall, accompanied by its respective acoustic backdrop. Thus, due to its power or expression, the oil painting creates an internal backdrop of sounds, and so returns the mantra, a lingering identical tone, to the space and to the exhibition room, its original destination. In this manner, the human being is integrated within the eternal flow of time and space, is supported by the infinite, and manages to be conceived as part of a cosmic whole.

The works carried out between 2005 and 2008 address the themes of “life”, “transience” and “organism”. In the works of the series Per mortem ad vitam, Elizabeth Dorazio uses oil paintings from her previous series Mundi Maritimi, cutting them into fragments and combining them through collage with other anatomical-organic structures that are reminiscent, for example, of the venous system. In this manner, she mounts a new picture on a screen that acts as a diffuse, watery background, painted in acrylics.

In her compositions from 2006 forward, Elizabeth Dorazio progressively elected a geognostic theme using primarily transparent materials that lead the eye toward what is normally invisible to human beings. Geognosis ontological also is part of these compositions, conceived in an infinite form and composed of several superimposed layers of transparent sheets of foil fixed to a background of Japanese paper, painted with diffuse watercolors that leave marks in the form of stains. Each of the transparent layers of paper displays fine lines that depict, as a motif, anatomical-organic structures. Each layer of transparent paper also contains cut-out openings, that allow a limited view of the underlying layers, so that, although the layers are superimposed, the overlapping papers with the drawings of anatomical structures become visible, also because of the translucent nature of the material.

From the beginning of her artistic journey, Elizabeth Dorazio has followed this flow of ideas surrounding the complex themes described above, attributing to them a creative, artistic language of their own through her relentless search for new materials and textures, and ever-differing levels of expression.

Marie Christiane Seiferth
Researcher/Philosophy and Theology

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