Brazilian Vivência - Elisa Bracher - Artist in Focus - May 2017

Elisa Bracher has over the course of her career developed a strong commitment to print-making and drawing. She creates large-scale intuitive expressions on rice paper, resulting in plays with modernist traditions. To her, the exploration of lightness and darkness, presence and absence as well as overcoming technical limitations, are of fundamental importance and underpin her 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional artistic practice. These occurrences can be observed in her distinctive ideograms which brought about the optical deconstruction of her colossal sculptural pieces. Her visual innovations represent the up-right and side-way erection of her sculptures, at times with a sliced-open, linear, geometrical and an intermeshed physiognomy, revealing external and internal connections: the energy and visceral quality of Bracher's compositions seem to be consumed in a seamless continuum of successive moments, reflecting upon the inner sanctum of her monuments.

In contrast, Bracher's sculptures are concerned with propping, leaning, tilting, suspension, gravity and balance.  The individual components of her huge pieces are fabricated either from wood, stone, metal or a combination.  As each beam rises, forming a tilted structure they seem to tip, echoing an edginess with a weighty presence. She mysteriously balances the mass of her giants and one wonders how the sculptures were erected and why they don't collapse. Her metal spheres are typically suspended with their weight being supported by stainless steel wires or constructed devices.  The work Stopless Full-Stop has been used as a stage set by the Brazilian Choreographer Jean Abreu for his dance performance A Thread which was performed at the Southbank Centre, London, in November 2016. 

The influence of Brazil’s political and cultural ambitions can be witnessed in Bracher’s engagement with both the public realm and the gallery environment: she presents narratives of modernism with a sense of the monumental, contemplating upon her country’s society and development. Often her sculptures are displayed in São Paolo’s streets and plazas and provoke controversy, they are a critique of the urban space. She stated people say, “you have destroyed this place, but I laugh and say: art is won­der­ful, it creates a place where there was no place, and destroys this place, all in one move”.

Elisa Bracher’s work has been shown in major international museums and galleries, and is held in public, private and corporate collections worldwide. As an artist of a profound Brazilian vivência -  way of life, she founded Acaia, an organisation which supports children and teenagers during schooling in São Paulo. 

For further information about Elisa Bracher's work contact  [email protected]