Between the hand and the machine
On Monica Barki´s rolls of paper
Monica Barki, better known for her pictorial work, began her artistic
career, nevertheless, with the polemical series of lithographs produced
from pictures of her own family: photographs of relatives were manually
reproduced with subtle, erotic-tinged touches added to them. These
were interferences that proceeded from the artisanal mastery of
the artist, who at that time was interested in questions of hyperrealism.
More than twenty years having elapsed since those initial experiments,
Monica has recently resumed her investigative work in graphics.
The "Rolls of Paper" that she has been producing result
from the combination of images frequently inspired by popular motifs
(for example, the "clothesline" or chapbook literature
of Brazil´s Northeast - the cordel), repeatedly reproduced
on large rolls of industrialized wrapping paper wound around rolls
of paper used in rotative presses.
Differently from the almost photographic nature of her lithographs,
the images printed on the rolls of paper do not possess any realistic
or naturalistic content. They do not conceal their manual origin,
nor the conventions present in the materials put out in a printing
establishment of the popular classes of urban Brazilian culture
either, as much in regard to their configuration of forms as in
their thematic contents. The artisanal quality of the images, though
unequivocal, is subverted, nevertheless, by its serial and mechanical
printing on regular intervals of the bobbins of paper. The poetic
aspect of these works of Barki´s leans on tension between
the artisanal production and the industrial processes of reproduction
of the image. Added to this tension, there are other significances
that complement the syntax of the rolls of paper.
It is well known that the logic of the art market is based primarily
on the greater value set on the unique work, almost always artisanal.
Being in serial form implies the inevitable depreciation of the
value of the work of art. It cannot but sound strange, therefore,
that many artists-painters, for example, adopt criteria of the value
of their works based solely on their size. Would it be that quality
and size are irreconcilable requisites for the acquisition of works
of art? It is this that Barki´s ironic parody seems to be
pointing out when she sells her images, whether they are on fabrics
or on paper, by the meter.
Fernando Cocchiarale
Art critic and curator of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro - September, 2004
Tradução: Esther Stearns d´Utra e Silva
“Ana C.”, 2002
flexografia sobre papel reciclado (280 x 0,25 m)
suporte de ferro e madeira / altura variável
Coleção João Sattamini
“Ana Gana Ana Cana”, 2002
flexografia sobre papel reciclado (280 x 0,25 m)
suporte de ferro e madeira / altura variável
Coleção João Sattamini
”Bar com almoço”,
2004
flexografia sobre papel reciclado (330 x 0,40 m)
suporte de ferro e madeira / altura variável
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