IV: the intimacy
“I observe a lot, and I’m always immersed in my own memories, so maybe this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now. I watch others a lot, so maybe this is why I see so many layers inside the body. I feel the layers. The human being is so deep. I also feel everything so deep all the time. I feel everything so deeply inside. The moments of intimacy are perhaps the moments when we can access at least one more layer of existence/presence of another person or of ourselves. How to access what is not always visible? Different ways of seeing, or being. This is why I like the transparency: to explore layers, to see the other side, the interior, to create new relationships with the space that my body inhabits. Can I create a space of stillness, even though there’s movement in the work? Can I be a storyteller as well?” Artist’s journal entry, October, 2023.
It’s been years since the imagery of the body has been present in my practice, focusing on its sensible possibilities. Ideas of time, memory, feelings, livingness and identity permeated my work for a long time. Now, I had the urge to focus on the everyday - more specifically, on the intimacy that is present in the everyday life; to pay attention to details of the everyday.
The everyday is very much intertwined with my practice: to bring normally unnoticed things into visibility can be related to the use of transparency; the interior of the body; feelings, memories, fears, desires, affection. The line is also present in the everyday, in everything we look at. The lines of the world are also overlooked; you have to stop for a moment to see it.
Repetition is part of the everyday life, and part of the embroidery process. The everyday has its own rhythms, cycles and time, just like embroidery: the repetition of stitches, even though it looks the same, is always different and moving forward. Just like life. Life happening is just like the process.
To highlight intimacy is to highlight its infinite possibilities and differences. Intimacy is part of the everyday and vice-versa. To get in touch with yourself is already a simple form of intimacy, and to reach this point it is necessary to be present, to be fully living the “everydayness” (JOHNSTONE, 2008, p.13). To access intimacy is to access a new interior layer of the body, of a life.
José Leonilson shared his own thoughts and experiences in his works. With an intimate look at his own life, the artist built narratives that mixed visual and verbal languages as a vehicle for his own stories. The closeness between artist and subject was present in Leonilson’s multimedia practice, especially in his embroideries, which were mostly made when he was hospitalized at the end of his life.
“It is precisely these innocuous activities and daily little rituals that constitute the eternal bedrock of ‘being together’. We should remember that when nothing is important, everything assumes importance” (MAFFESOLI, 2002, p.78). To focus in these personal narratives, therefore, impacts on the collectiveness.
“Snapshots of the everyday life reminds me of the existence here and now” (MAFFESOLI, 2002, p.78).
I believe that, by paying attention to things that we usually don’t, it’s possible to create a sense of presence and stillness, or open space to new perspectives about the world and about ourselves. And this could, consequently, generate a new point of view of the world.
References
JOHNSTONE, S. (2008) Introduction, in JOHNSTONE, S. (ed.) The Everyday (Documents of Contemporary Art). London: Whitechapel Gallery.
José Leonilson (1991) 34 with Scars [Acrylic, embroidery thread, and plastic tacks on voile]. Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81974 (Accessed: 24 nov. 2023).
MAFFESOLI, M. (2002) Walking in the margins, in JOHNSTONE, S. (ed.) The Everyday (Documents of Contemporary Art). London: Whitechapel Gallery.
José Leonilson. 34 with Scars, 1991. 41 x 31 cm