A traditional and entertaining game, Rock, Paper, Scissors introduces a cyclical system of ever-changing forces. Facing each other head-on, various elements confront one another, revealing their dominance and vulnerability: whereas the rock beats the scissors, because it breaks it, the paper is vanquished by the scissors, cutting it. The stone, in turn, is overpowered by the paper, which wraps around it and overwhelms it. The instability of this dialectical structure, in which each element is simultaneously potent and fragile, is echoed in Rita Senra’s work Pedra que Pariu, currently on show at Sismógrafo.

Senra’s work has its origins in the national phenomenon of pedras parideiras (birthing stones), which, dressed in words, imposes itself like a large-scale poem. The stone that gives birth to another stone is not just a stationary mineral element, but a morphing system, imprinted by the action of time. This one is formed by a granite, unique in Portugal and rare in the world, which has several disc-shaped biotite nodules. In a contraction and dilation process, as a result of thermal variations and erosion methods, the biotite nodules detach from the parent stone and turn into singular entities. If, in the birthing stones, the biotite nodules are detached from the granite matrix, Senra’s work releases the word from its utterer and transforms it into an independent body. Nevertheless, this separation is not without its scars. There are traces of what is now absent in both the stone and the discourse.

Each meticulously hand-cut letter carries within it the likelihood of absence, since hand-cutting implies an underlying risk of loss. In this trial and error operation, the text is built as a fabric of marks where inscriptions and gaps coexist, reinforcing the relationship between presence and absence, resistance and fragility. Despite the fact that the word acts as a preserving device, preserving itself in the speech act, its permanence is always contingent on the materiality of the support. Paper was chosen in this specific case, a material that, although light and vulnerable, plays the paradoxical role of containing and bearing discourse, reinforcing the weakness of writing and naming.

In turn, the word removes from the big picture the meticulous process to which each paper sheet is subjected, moving the materiality of the gesture to the realm of discourse. In an extremely painstaking and time-consuming process, Senra cuts the paper sheets by hand and dips them into beeswax at a pre-tested temperature, one by one. After drying, the sheets are sewn together, individually, on a sewing machine. Sewing the paper creates a paradox: the connecting thread can also pierce, puncture, bruise, unveiling or heightening its ephemerality. At first glance, however, what seems rather fragile turns out to be the word’s own resistance apparatus. Is it Life made visible, sensible? (Deleuze, 2011, p. 121) Or even life itself circulating?

Like a game that can only be played if its rules are followed, the sheer strength of this poem is provided by the intersecting vertical and horizontal forces. The point is not to see who wins, but to highlight the dynamic balance of this entanglement, in which each element establishes its role through the presence of the other. The paper is turned into the navel of the word, whereas the word, akin to Deleuze, operates through variation, expansion, and absorption, based on traceable bonds between points and positions. A discourse that alternates between personal and apersonal statements at a fast pace, using a complex set of pronouns and descriptive verbs whose rhythm is arranged on the basis of a repetitive structure – “pedras que” -, establishing a speech pact: the other, the narrator, is no longer external, a sealed substance, but a passageway for reminiscence. The insulting, distracting, heavy or crushing stones are also healing and welcoming.

The stones are what they are, what they can and what they do, both in the first person singular and plural, and it is within this flow and relationship that we embark on the endeavour to find the contrast between shadow and color that will allow us to write the poem. The intermittency between reading and illegibility forces our eyes to continually adjust and search for the right angle. As we proceed, some words appear and reveal the sentence to which they belong while others vanish, engendering a looming rupture between capture and loss. Maybe this is the idea – the impossibility of fully regaining a native territory, as well as, and going back to the title of the work, the frustration of an impossible return to the solace of a womb. We then enter into a struggle against the volatility of the word, facing its resistance to permanence and stability. A genuine affective feat, where the word, reading and memory interact in a state of effort, tension and continuous displacement.

Rita Senra’s Pedra que pariu is at Sismógrafo in Porto until March 22.

Bibliography:

Barthes, R. (2004). The Rustle of Language. São Paulo: Martins Fontes Editora.

Deleuze, G. (2011). Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. Lisbon: Orfeu Negro