Hypothetical Geographies
For the latter, a series of Imaginary Geographies with faded colours, Bastos adds cutouts to alter the viewer’s perception of the given space. This way, he provides a heightened sense of depth, reinforcing their nostalgic feel. In the making of these two series, the artist poeticizes the recovered images and transforms them into sculptures through cut-outs and delicate assemblages of balsa elements (a light, fragile and brittle wood, usually used for 3D models). The careful layout, the way in which the paper perfectly aligns with other sublayers or even, at times, cantilevers over them, creates subtle plays on our sense of perspective and explores the porous boundaries between installation and image. Rui Calçada Bastos thereby presents new spaces of perception and subjective knowledge.
Gregory Lang 2021