Lives in Between Sao Paulo and Milan
Website https://www.matheuschiaratti.com/
How do you describe your own art practice?
I think my practice is very non-linear, erratic… It takes on various guises along the way, from writing to photography, embroidery, canvas, ceramics. I am an artist very obsessed by things and I go about searching for everything, in an intuitive and disorderly way, in order to find the best way to say what I want to say. Lately, I have found a way to write my secrets and draw my little heroes mostly through ceramics. But in essence, I am a poet, who writes poetry with images and material media.
Which question or theme is central in your work?
I think that every artist in some way talks about death, and I would say that this is my main theme: the ultimate end. And I would also say that I am finding ways to leave traces of what is, for me, the experience of life. Of course, death finds nuances; sometimes it manifests itself through eroticism, at other times through the obsession with literary characters like Rimbaud (What a life! What a body of work! And what an end!). In short, that’s it. There is no escape.
What was your first experience with art?
My childhood references, were few, but important: Tarsila do Amaral, Karel Appel, Picasso… Characters and works that appeared in books and on the public television channel, TV Cultura, which for my generation had a dominant and central role.
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
Poetry.
What do you need in order to create your work?
Some silence, poetry books, and a cigarette, nothing else. Besides, of course, the materials I use the most: linen, clay, canvas, oil paint, rolls of film, paper… And a good cup of Brazilian coffee.
What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
When I rediscovered, now at greater depth, Francesca Woodman’s photographs, I was fascinated. Especially one photo in particular “Turtle,” 1975-80. It is the ultimate in beauty, it is pure time, it is a weird ritual of human being, matter, nature, in such a seemingly simple image. She dresses as a sun-God who is dancing, robust. This picture is beautiful!