Before Hooves Grow considers the island as both a fantasy of escape and a site where isolation produces material change. Taking Madeira as its point of departure — historically imagined through narratives of abundance, cure, remoteness and reinvention — the exhibition places these projections alongside allopatric speciation, the evolutionary process through which geographically isolated populations gradually develop distinct characteristics.
Extending this process to the human body, the works imagine what prolonged isolation might produce: hooves adapted to steep terrain, or voices capable of travelling across mountains. Through this speculative evolution, the desire to escape and become otherwise is pushed towards an absurd conclusion: adaptation becomes so complete that departure may no longer be possible.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
(2020)
Location
Capela da Boa Viagem, Funchal
Dates
2022
Materials / media
Mixed fabric, aluminium, ropes
Photo Credits
Hélder Folgado
Out of Sight, Out of Mind takes as its starting point places that remain difficult or virtually impossible to reach, whether through geographical isolation, political restriction, spiritual significance or the limits of human access. Known through coordinates, maps and images but rarely encountered directly, these locations occupy an ambiguous space between geographical fact and fiction, sustaining the fantasy of somewhere beyond the problems of the inhabited world.
The exhibition confronts this fantasy with the impossibility of complete escape. Point Nemo, the most remote location in the Pacific Ocean, for instance, contains traces of microplastic pollution despite its extreme isolation. Moving between references to distant sites and the physical conditions of the gallery itself, Out of Sight, Out of Mind considers remoteness as both a spatial condition and an escapist projection — and asks whether anywhere can remain truly outside the systems we might wish to leave behind.
Before Hooves Grow considers the island as both a fantasy of escape and a site where isolation produces material change. Taking Madeira as its point of departure — historically imagined through narratives of abundance, cure, remoteness and reinvention — the exhibition places these projections alongside allopatric speciation, the evolutionary process through which geographically isolated populations gradually develop distinct characteristics.
Extending this process to the human body, the works imagine what prolonged isolation might produce: hooves adapted to steep terrain, or voices capable of travelling across mountains. Through this speculative evolution, the desire to escape and become otherwise is pushed towards an absurd conclusion: adaptation becomes so complete that departure may no longer be possible.
