Never Never Land
From: 11.05.2023 - 21.06.2023
Never Never Land
Throughout the last five decades, Ana Jotta has been building a very singular body of work which has granted her an increasingly international attention. Paradoxically, part of that singularity comes from her complete disregard for some of the most widespread “rules” of artistic practice. Ana Jotta has no intent on establishing a coherent, recognizable style, nor does her work circumscribe itself to one single media. In fact, she has paid as much attention to painting as she has done to sculpture; she has delved into drawing and experi¬mented with etching, and knitting has sometimes graced her studio as well.
However diverse and equally important, none of these activities has had so much attention from the artist as that which focuses on what we usually call the “found object”. As the name states, these are objects –things of the most diverse nature–, which the artist comes across in her day-to-day life and whose qualities –formal, sym¬bolic, conceptual or other– somehow capture her interest in a special way.
As João Fernandes wrote in The House of Ana (2005): “There is a playful principle that Ana Jotta uses in order to destabilise any type of frontier or limit between art and life. «If it is possible to appropriate everything as art, then we should do so». Freed of grandiloquent manifestos or attitudes, but rather through the subversion of small daily gestures, Jotta’s work is a constant irreverence towards certainties and routines.”