IMMA Residency Programme > Projects Archive
Alexandra Do Carmo: A willow (Or without Godot) & Untitled (from the 2006 drawing series)
Process Room, 16.05.06- 21.05.06
 "Untitled (from the 2006 drawing series), Alexandra Do Carmo, Process Room, IMMA")
 "Untitled (from the 2006 drawing series), Alexandra Do Carmo, Process Room, IMMA")
Untitled (from the 2006 drawing series)
Drawing, pencil on paper, 49 x 33 cm, series unfinished
In the 2006 drawing series, one is lead through a narrative; the author is being portrayed as a chimpanzee. In each drawing he looks directly at the viewer. Inside his eyes, like a mirror image, one can see a studio scenario; a table, a chair, a window; initially the position of the chair creates the look and/or facial expression of the monkey.
The image of the author changes from that of a single monkey unable to see the outside of his own actions and his own space to an active and social being. Using the metaphor of the subject [as or not as] a monkey, Do Carmo progressively transforms this being into one interested in collective engagement and social activity, opening his studio practice to the exterior.
The drawings are progressively showing a figure in relation to the expanding and contracting architectural elements of the studio. Further on in the series, one can see that the monkey is no longer in an inside space but outside his studio, seeing three other monkeys that he invites inside. As the search for the ”other” continues and the narrative develops, the four monkeys are not monkeys anymore; the passage from an individual self-enclosed practice to a collective open one is turning visible as the drawing reveals a similarity to the human figure and actually depicts four figures developing a project together inside the studio that once belonged to a single one. The drawings contain notations of perceived mistakes as a testimonial to the drawing process, becoming closer to a diagrammatic situation or a plan for a real construction.
The floor of the process room is covered with gravel from the outside of the Museum.
Performance
A willow (Or without Godot)
Two mattresses, two ipods (audio), gravel covering the floor.
The public is invited to lie down on a mattress and hear an audio piece. Each mattress is attached to a different audio piece.
The audio is taken from Beckett’s Waiting for Godot; one audio is taken from the character Vladimir and the other from Estragon. The public is taken to a place where the artist recorded each positive sentence from each of these characters in the play emphasizing a complicity, dependency and deep affection between Vladimir and Estragon. The sound of the sea plays in the background.
The floor of the process room is covered with gravel from the outside of the Museum.
For a printable version of this information please download the following documents 
Untitled (from the 2006 drawing series) May 2006 (Word doc- 114 KB) and Performance: A willow (Or without Godot) May 2006 (Word doc - 114 KB)
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