Priscila Fernandes Portuguese artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and has been working on a consistent international career for over a decade. In her work she analyses systems of representation, education and society in the modern world to establish unexpected parallels between leasure and work structures, between learning and social conditioning.
In August 2017 Priscila approached In4Art with the question to support her in what could be a turning point in her career. She wanted to create space to experiment with a new medium, a technically challenging medium and a medium that required developing new tools. She wanted to start working on Encaustic Paintings.
We decided to commence a co-production period providing Priscila with the resources to create the space she needed and to develop the tools she envisioned whilst taking her through a process of reflection and challenges to co-develop the context and possibilities of this new technique entering her artistic practice.
Our collaboration ended with the exhibition Luisa’s Wedding at Galeria Fernando Santos in Porto, Portugal from April to June 2018.
To read more on the collaboration:
How experiments brought light to a heating table and encaustic paintings
What’s next?
During experimentation with the encaustic technique, the insights led to new questions and possibilities for future development. The fascination of touch, of physical warmth could benefit from a skin like surface. How would it work on leather, or perhaps on bacteria grown leather (kambutcha)? And talking about transparency, how can it be framed that both sides of the work can be exhibited? Or what will happen, if other ‘glazing’ techniques will be added to the beeswax. Think about a sugar coat, melted sand turning into glass or evaporated salt, making you taste the sweaty skin of the heath?
These are the types of discussions In4Art and Priscila keep on having. In a next series, Priscila will elaborate on this and continue with her experiments. The research insights will be visualized in a new art work which will go to the In4Art Collection as result of this collaboration.
Priscila Fernandes on the collaboration
As an artist, I find time for experimentation to be one of the most important keys in the development of a practice. Most of the time, artists can’t find the funding needed to sustain this side of their practices. It is an investment that is not retrieved in sales or in exhibition making, with the costs either being supported by the artist or by research grants. The support from In4Art was not only financial, but also a dedicated program which allowed me to have a structured reflection of my work. In4Art were enthusiastic at every studio visits and their different background and focus allowed me to question my work in a way that was fruitful for its development.
