Larissa de Souza: Paredes Que Contam Histórias
Text by Nathalia Grilo
Larissa de Souza. Ocasiãoespecial-Elametirouparadançar,2022. Acrylic and mixed media on linen. 51 1/4 x 73 3/4 inches | 130 x 187.5 cm.
A black woman’s home can, as does her heart, hold pain and happiness. Everyday life, woven slowly by the cadence of the days, shades walls with secrets immortalized as marks of passing time. Dreams are muddled with children’s cries, the hiss of boiling pots pass through the windows seasoning the streets and the rituals of affection, like clothes that need repair, are sewn by ancient hands and are renewed with each generation.
Paredes que Contam Histórias talks about these histories as it explores memories collected in Brazil’s collective imaginary and in the subconscious of the artist Larissa de Souza, in a quest for experiential and symbolic virtues found in the intuition of black women who live imprisoned in their private worlds.
“…Suddenly, in that tiny space, the world fit...” -Conceição EvaristoLarissa de Souza Conversas da maternidade, 2022 Acrylic and mixed media on linen 51 1/8 x 72 7/8 inches | 130 x 185 cm Larissa de Souza Receita da Vovó , 2023 Acrylic and mixed media on linen 31 1/2 x 19 3/4 inches | 80 x 50 cm
Like a prayer, this series is composed of twelve works that sing a supreme devotion to the feminine and Brazil’s popular architecture. Devotion nourished by the artist who, through painting, creates dreamlike houses, referring to the aesthetics of Platibandas - a form of colonial architecture disseminated from the 19th century onwards in Brazil.
Evoking senses that exceed the visual and aesthetic elements, Larissa recreates allegorical portals that engulf us with sweet yet indigestible subjects, adorned by sensitive bricolage giving life to shapes, colors, tastes, gestures, and sounds to homes inhabited predominantly by women.
By creating works with delicate textures, the artist simulates peeled or speckled walls, revealing the many symbolic layers an old house can accommodate. Larissa manipulates materials common to civil construction, such as tiles and stonesapplications that ornament what is hidden, highlighting complexities that are withheld in the relationship amongst black women, space, and corporeity.
The artist nourishes her perceptions in African traditions where the house has the importance of a living being that holds the affectionate memories of a clan within its structure. With this ancestral understanding, she depicts precious moments of intimacy as a type of photo painting where an abundant breast pours pearls, silent confessions are shared as the beans are being picked, contradictions coming from the television announce unrealistic models of life, racism and sexism impose social norms that dictate how female behavior should be and a meeting of friends and lovers color love and loneliness.
In a confessional tone, like unsaid testimonies, Paredes que Contam Histórias portrays the female experience in a domestic environment while contrasting, through metaphors, what these women would like to live, like hazy longings that insinuate dreams of hope.
Larissa de Souza Não ser eu, para se aceita, 2022 Acrylic on linen 58 5/8 x 51 inches | 149 x 129.5 cm