Hugo Brazão

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Hugo Brazão

Cat did it!

(2021)

Cat did it! takes as its starting point the story of Koko, the gorilla who, after reportedly tearing a sink from the wall, used sign language to indicate ‘cat did it’, apparently shifting the blame onto one of her pets. Whether or not the gesture constituted deliberate deception, the anecdote opens onto questions of guilt, responsibility and the impulse to distance ourselves from the consequences of our actions.

Moving between animal behaviour, scapegoating and rituals of ablution, the exhibition considers the act of cleansing as both physical and psychological: from washing the body to ‘washing one’s hands’ of responsibility. Deception and purification emerge as parallel strategies of self-preservation — ways of negotiating discomfort, guilt and the desire to emerge clean from the mess we make.

Location

Balcony, Lisbon

Dates

2020

Materials

Acrylic resin, pigments, mixed textiles, found wood, rubber-coated steel U-bolts, acrylic paint, industrial floor paint, rope and marble aggregate.


Photo Credits


Reinis Lismanis

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.

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.