HILAL SAMI HILAL: TUDO BEM

The It’s Alright Exhibition (Tudo bem), by artist Hilal Sami Hilal, from Espírito Santo, presents, as a connecting thread, a Bob Dylan song , which the artist has always kept in his memory: “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”. The words are repeated as a mantra in several pieces of the exhibition. The main artwork presents five independent pieces, of 59 x 59 inches (150 x 150 cm), composing together a large copper and oxidation panel of 147 feet (4,5 m), shaped as a large “bandage”. In between the wrap around plans, the area of the “wound”, a giant bandage. Other works in small scale emerge from pieces of this work, where the artist employs an engraving procedure, using an oxidant and forming small copper plaques of 16 x16 inches (42 x 42 cm).

There are colored labels embroidered with the song title evoke Arthur Bispo do Rosário, as well as copper bars with the dominant phrase engraved in bas-relief. The core ideais to talk about language as the main rebar of our existence, our support,bringing the reference to a tragic, sick environment, in its poetry. And, on the other hand, materials bring forth a dark but shining atmosphere, with the presence of copper, gold, metal powder, oxidants and weaves.

Another series of works present in the exhibition started being sketched around two years ago. “Aleppo”, hometown of the artist father, was the stage for the Syrian war and serves as title for this series. It’s a piece of fabric of paper mass and gold powder, the markings made with stones and tile shards, reminding us of bullet holes and evoking the catastrophic situations of war, elevating the exhibition title - so simple and ordinary - to a paradox, a typical enigma in the artist’s poetics.

The works by Hilal Sami Hilal take us to a place of fascination and beauty close to religious ecstasy, and their deep experience in engraving methods give the works an essence of revelation.