Cosmic Farming
OSGF
Q&A With Dolores Furtado
Where have you been the past few months?
I spent the past few months in an apartment in Brooklyn.
Historically, what ideas, issues, and subject matter(s) have inspired your work?
My practice is the result of my interest in matter, nature and spirituality. Many of my sculptures look like a piece of raw material found in nature. In my sculpture I focus on process, and the piece is not a pre-designed object, but the outcome of a series of actions with an open end. I think of my sculptures as documentation of process and action.
When I work, I’m guided by the power of transformation. Like an alchemist, my practice is based on the idea of transforming materials into different states. Alchemy had the principle in which everything around us contains a universal spirit, and metals were believed to be alive. I believe materials carry meaning, and they are spiritually charged. In my world, matter and spirit are the same thing in different forms.
Through my work, I explore the physical and spiritual connection to the natural world. I seek to integrate the human experience with a sense of belonging to the universe, a system we are part of but we seem unaware of.
What creative projects are you currently working on?
I’m working on a project called Cosmic Farming. It’s an installation of a piece of agricultural land. A farmland made of a display of 4 rows of planted beds, where crops are growing. The crops are represented by organic abstract sculptures of different materials and sizes. It’s harvest time.
Cosmic Farming is a reminder of the impact of human action on the environment. Agriculture was probably the first major action of modification of nature by man. The work addresses issues surrounding sustainability and our connection with the land. Humans are elements of a natural system we belong to. Although we are part of nature, we seem to have forgotten about it. And yet, we have a physical and spiritual connection to the natural world.
As the Earth enters an environmentally precarious age, due to the human exploitation of natural resources, we must rethink our relationship with nature. How do we nurture ourselves? What do we eat? What do we produce?
The installation is made of 25 abstract sculptures of various dimensions and materials, with a size ranging between 20 inches up to 8 feet tall, and a total dimension of 8’ x 10’ x 10’. The project seeks to establish a conversation with the visitors surrounding our relationship with the ecosystem we live in.
How has your artistic practice changed during this time?
As a sculptor, I have a physical connection with materials, and I find all my answers in the making. My work is based in experimenting, and the most revealing occurrences happen while working. This lockdown made me review the way I work, since my studio practice has been forced to change. For the moment, I’m not working directly with materials, but only thinking and planning projects, like virtual studio visits, interviews and applications.
It’s been quite challenging for me, considering the kind of work I do. I currently spend most of the time thinking about my work, instead of making it. It does generate some interesting questions. How to translate the physical experience into the virtual world? Would a rendering or a video ever be able to replicate the feeling of touch? Can virtual reality ever replace physical reality?
As a sculptor, these themes are particularly relevant, since I work with the body and the 3D world. The physical presence, the experience of being in direct contact with the object is crucial.
Has COVID-19 shifted how you think about the natural world?
I was always interested in nature and concerned about the environment, but the pandemic increased its importance, and now the issue is more relevant than ever. The world was already talking about the environmental crisis before the outbreak, but this sudden shock forced us to stop and reconsider it. I think this is happening on a global level. For us, living in populated urban areas, the lockdown is deeply alienating, and the need for outdoors spaces becomes an urgent matter. How desperately we need nature now? We feel it in our bodies.
I want to think this crisis can lead to a change in the way we treat the planet, and to rethink the role we play in it. Although it’s very unsettling, I try to see the brighter side of it. I think this virus is here for us to stop producing, reconsider, and regroup, and that includes our work as artists.