Last week, my friend Helena came to visit me from London. It was only for a short while, about 10 days (some might say too short). I was undecided over where we should go since I wanted to show her a Brazil that wasn't simply tourist attractions but at the same I was aware that there were some things she couldn't leave without seeing. We ended up spending about half the time in Rio and the rest of the time divided up between Paraty and São Paulo. I suppose it was inevitable really and I'm sure it'd be the same with the UK: you can't really visit it for the first time without spending some time in London and going to Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace and so on and so forth. In any case, I'm positive Brazil made a good enough impression that it won't be her last trip, so perhaps taking a boat through the Amazon is next on our list.
So while we were in Rio, we saw the sights: Crist Redeemer, Ipanema and Copacabana Beach, Lapa, Santa Teresa, etc. One night, whilst walking round the centre of Rio, we discovered an exhibition that was taking place by Os Gêmeos (The Twins), Brazilian graffiti artists Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo, who are indeed twins. I'd seen some of their work around São Paulo already, lining the walls of underpasses and forgotten street corners, and so the chance to see it up close and in more detail was one I couldn't pass up.
Os Gêmeos began doing graffiti back in 1987, influenced by the hip hop culture of New York and by São Paulo's own graffiti tradition called pixação, a movement with very specific rules and with an aesthetic based solely around a kind of black-letter calligraphy. However, they've developed their own trademark over the years, producing images based on Brazilian folklore as well as social commentary of São Paulo, characterised by the yellow figures that are often present in their works. Over time, they've found much wider acclaim, with offers to produce works in spaces overseas as well as in Brazil. The photograph above shows their participation in The Graffiti Project on Kelburn Castle in June 2007, where Os Gêmeos, along with two other Brazilian graffiti artists, were given permission to paint an old Scottish castle. The yellow face on the castle's tower in the centre of the photography is particularly indicative of their style. They've also exhibited their work in London, as part of the Street Art exhibition at the Tate Modern last year. Six graffiti artists from around the world produced large works along the wall of the Tate, each one given free reign to do whatever they pleased. Os Gêmeos produced one of their large-scale characters, a fisherman who holds a net full of ripped out CCTV cameras, as the photograph below shows.
The exhibition we went to see was somewhat different from these works. Whilst painted images was still the focus of their art, there was also a lot experimentation with textures, fibres, use of multimedia. One room had two large boxes which on the outside were painted with their traditional yellow faces. Inside, however, they contained much more: one was a small, dark room fully equipped with a bed, an oven, and a TV playing a looped video of a beggar on the streets of São Paulo. There was also a lazer, similar to one you might find in a club. The room wasn't lavish at all but it seemed to suggest a social inequality in São Paulo, even between someone of a very modest home and someone without a roof over their heads of any kind. One could also hear Gary Jules' cover of 'Mad World' on loop, adding to the melancholic feel of the room. The other box was sealed but for a small hole where you could pop your head in to reveal mirrors on every side and blue bulbs lighting the space; along with an Aimee Mann song playing in the background (I don't know which one specifically), it had an equally melancholic feel to it, creating a space where you were surrounded by an infinite number of people and at the same completely alone.
The next room was dedicated to their paintings, ranging from surreal images including colourful flying fish, a man with a duck's head, a mermaid, as well as more grounded images such as one of four hooded graffiti artists celebrating the completion of painting a São Paulo subway train (something Os Gêmeos were themselves commissioned to do near the beginning of the decade). The balance between light-hearted surrealism and more politically-motivated naturalism sets them apart from many of the other São Paulo graffiti artists who appear to remove the light-heartedness from the equation.
The final, smaller room was an entire installation named Os Músicos (The Musicians). The walls were all filled with speakers painted as yellows faces, as the first photograph shows. Connected to these speakers were instruments that anyone was allowed to play, though were heavily muted (such as the drums) or missing strings (such as the guitar and the bass). The only instrument that did work properly was a small keyboard placed on the floor, which, incidentally, my friend Helena played this tune on (having said that, I'd recommend watching the whole video for its full effect). The installation seemed to be suggesting the irony of having so many speakers and ability to produce a lot of noise and yet not having the proper instruments to do so. Whether that's simply a playful joke or more of a social comment is in the eye of the beholder. Knowing Os Gêmeos, it's probably a bit of both.
To see more of their works from around São Paulo, take a look at the site below.
