Adam Brasil - Thunderbolt (study)

Adam Brasil

Confronting ideas through an interdisciplinary approach informed by sculptural practice, I seek to communicate with people from around the world. Once an idea consumes me, it dictates which medium will best serve its expression. Unraveling the wonders of the global village, creating new juxtapositions, and transforming cultural memory are relevant themes. Inspired by athletic competitions, ethnography and cycles of nature, my current work uses diverse materials to create cultural hybrids that haven’t yet emerged. “Football/Futebol” exists as a performance where a soccer match and a football game occur simultaneously on one field. The players are adorned with half sporting half Carnival costumes and a samba marching band has free will to roam the field. “Solar Power Sunrise”, a 9x9" inch acrylic box with a solar panel armature, attempts to create a 24 hour sun cycle by automatically activating a video loop of streaming clouds and the sun at dusk, powered by solar panels and batteries. The Santa /Jesus/Zeus variations explore systems of belief and hybridization through iconic, popular figures. Santa Claus represents infant belief in an omniscient patriarch, Zeus the pre-teen fascination with heroes and Jesus a socially accepted avenue for these same longings. The materiality of the pieces, plaster, incandescent xmas lights, plastic, derive from a) my love of traditional sculptural process (the wisdom that unites all artists) and b) the anthropological scavenging missions I embark on in my neighborhood of Washington Heights where the unintentional cultural collisions witnessed on the street speak to me. Recently, I completed a 20' welded steel sculpture of a thunderbolt. This was my attempt to represent light physically; a split second phenomenon of nature, concretizing the magic moment when the lightning drops from the sky illuminating its surroundings. These works, like the hours of dance-marching in Rio's Carnival parade, create situations where fantasy and reality collide into a new type of reality, an invincible optimism. Creating fantasy out of concrete materials is my method of transforming daily reality.