O Peixe [The Fish]

Overview

Jonathas de Andrade’s work often explores how collective codes of conduct and organisation impinge and shape other modes of being. Interested in the failures and utopic aspirations of Brazil’s modernism, he has investigated various models of learning, communication and narrative construction—methodological approaches that can both reinforce adherence to particular conventions and introduce the potential for poetry, play and invention.

In his SB13 presentation, O Peixe [The Fish] (2016), the artist expands an exploration of methodology to incorporate the realm of ritual. Structured as a series of vignettes, his film features individual fishermen embracing their catch until its last breath. Set where the São Francisco River meets the sea in the northeast region of Brazil, the film’s grainy, colour-saturated images, shot on 16 millimetre, are reminiscent of old ethnographic footage or a nature documentary, but here the aesthetic is employed to enrich and inscribe a new ritual conceived by the artist. The expression of tenderness following violent capture reinforces the dynamic between the two species: ‘imbued with strength, violence and domination’. Similarly, the camera’s systematic apprehension of nature in moving image provides an analogous point of comparison, compelling reflection on our own approach to conceptions of cultivation and livelihood.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 13.