Ressintonização Afetiva by Catarina Mil-Homens at Appleton
Ressintonização Afetiva is Catarina Mil-Homens’ latest exhibition, a Balaclava Noir project currently at Appleton. This is a multidisciplinary installation conceived to bring about an immersive environment using a cohesive narrative of light and shadow, movement and tension.
The exhibition is part of the artist’s ongoing research. Inspired by her interest in studying the role of consciousness when it comes to the body and mind, Catarina Mil-Homens has been studying the edges of human experience as far as materiality and immateriality are concerned, in an effort to push the boundaries and raise questions that sustain one’s experience of their surroundings. Our thoughts, reflexes and behaviour are all influenced by a range of factors, both internal and external, which can lead, over time, to a mismatch between what we feel, think and how we act in the private sphere and in society. Catarina Mil-Homens’ creative process, with a strong interest in the mystical approach, reaches its peak here in an installation that suggests the re-tuning that enables us to recognise – and adjust – our emotional and affective responses to our surroundings. Through this exhibition, the dialogue between the different works and the opposing material values carve out new paths and also invite us to constantly readjust our relationship with space. Pieces such as Corpo (2024) and Mente (2024), made from steel cables, paper and acrylic, create a rhythmic narrative that harnesses the concepts of resistance and lightness, ephemerality, weight and fragility.
Her keen interest in exploring the impact of mystical experiences on human consciousness and experience, in dealing with what is but cannot be seen and what is and cannot be seen but restricts or liberates us, is hinted at by the coexistence of works, light drawings and overlapping materials which, in this exhibition, become doorways that call for a crossing, a leap from the physical dimension into the abyss, from matter into non-matter, exploring the existing relationships and the multiple possible inner conversations. Re-tuning, a dynamic process of adjustment and re-evaluation to align our perceptions, entails a profound recognition of our own freedom and, in a way, the responsibility we have to establish a deep and authentic connection to the world and to ourselves. Catarina Mil-Homens seeks, with her creative process, to call for an exercise in adjusting emotional and thought patterns and aligning frequencies so as to “find different ways of understanding our surroundings and immerse ourselves in the possibilities of simultaneously inhabiting multiple dimensions”[1].
With the intention of probing non-tangible elements and forces, using multilayered works whose coexistence is an apparent tension between matter, they create an immersive relationship centred on what is non-physical, non-corporeal, seeking and eliciting an emotional response. This combination of light, shadow and tension (Essência, 2024) generates an energetic and paced universe, guiding the visitor’s gaze. Using resistant, high-density and rigid materials, such as cables and acrylic, in contrast to the seemingly fragile glass or paper, takes us to a sensitive poetic realm of transparency, intention and rhythm. Whereas the cables, which raise, support and connect, indicate permanence, the projections act as a portal, a path that emerges from an ephemeral sphere that “transports us from work to work (…) as an invitation to exercise awareness of the mind-body connection and the many consequences that this relationship has for individual and, therefore, collective well-being”[2].
The works become three-dimensional, they are bodies in space, drawings – using charcoal (O Que Não Dobra #5, 2013), India ink (Porta de Perceção #1, 2024), or light (Dupla Fresta, 2024) -, inviting people to reflect and move through layers in an attempt to fine-tune the focus or perception in relation to a concept. The dialogue between the different media forms an installation with an aesthetic and cohesive research unity, stemming from a hunger for alternative perspectives, recalibration and new interpretations. It is born from the realm of existence and the effectiveness of the sensitive personal, yet it spills over into the commonplace, into the “joint vision of social constructions, identity and possible futures”[3].
The exhibition can be visited until June 20.
[1] Source: Catarina Mil-Homens.
[2] Idem.
[3] Idem.