The pieces showcased at the Centro Cultural São Lourenço, are inscribed in the series of works created by Joana Vasconcelos from a restricted set of faience pieces designed by Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (1846- 1905); Portuguese artist, whose work in ceramics and prolific production in the fields of illustration and caricature, earned him a place among the most renowned artists of the 20th century. The title of the exhibition – Bichos – (meaning animals) is a reference to the book of tales with the same name by Miguel Torga, where the protagonists are humanised animals. The artist’s appropriation, in the framework of Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro’s vast production in ceramics, only includes the naturalist representation of animals – some of them oversized -, whose proximity to Man might generate discomfort, awe or fear. Lizards and snakes; crab; frogs; bull, donkey and horse heads; wolf; or even a cat with an aggressive posture; animals taken from the national fauna are elegantly imprisoned by delicate crochet-work, creating a discourse apt to renovate the fluxes of signification associated with the usual relationships between popular culture/erudite culture and tradition/modernity. The use of crochet in a paradoxical imprisonment/protection of the animals, thus relegated to the domestic context, opens up a vast and rich field of interpretation released by the beauty and strangeness generated by the result of the operation.

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