Copo d’água

Iran do Espírito Santo received his art training in São Paulo, and it could be said that to a large extent the artistic heritage produced in that city informs his current practice, from the Concrete Constructivism of the 1950s to the appropriations of Nelson Leirner, under whom he studied. Although he has persistently worked with a geometric vocabulary, Espírito Santo is mostly interested in representation, a subject he has been investigating in his installations, sculptures, drawings on paper, wood and walls, prints and photographs. The sculptures that were on display in one of Inhotim’s temporary galleries, which the artist executed in the 2000s, reveal an intense relationship between formal games and exercises in representation. Correções A [Corrections A, 2001] consists of strictly geometric blocks of granite that Espírito Santo has cut and polished while retaining their original shape. In doing so the artist seeks to reconcile the natural shape of the rock with the intentionality of the cut, and he has humorously titled the work after art’s desire to imitate nature while “correcting” its imperfections. In Sem título (Desdobrado) [Untitled (Unfolded), 2004], he works with a perfect geometric figure that he deconstructs into loose planes, as if it were a disassembled carton. Here Minimalism appears as an obvious reference, but the viewer’s perception of the object is not unequivocal. The literally open object is presented for viewing to spectators, who are motivated to mentally reassemble the latent form.