Birthing - 2003

If the pattern of life would justify our need to understand the essential qualities of our existence, then everything we know, feel and experience would be viewed as a reflection of the most primal pointing which all of existence converge to the point of Birth. Birth as the reference point of everything that is, and everything will be. Since at the point of birth, the eternal process of growth, decay and death are absolutely necessary, the vital urge for rebirth is always inevitable. (creation and re-creation) Everything has no end, everything is always a beginning. Everything is always at the point of birthing.

Ulysses Veloso’s new series of sculptures punctuates this existential dictum. It is inspired by the search for a symbol (shape or pattern) that would articulate the process of birth and re-birth, a form that could evoke the eternal without being stiff or constrained. His objectives are bare and simple, their presence capable of conveying an extraordinary range of emotions and free associations. Their inevitable character invites us to consider the ephemeral quality of life while their continuously biomorphic forms suggest lightness, freedom, and the interconnectedness of all things. Choosing the organic shape of an egg (or a seed, or a living creature) marks a nexus between patterns of coherence and order, chaos and randomness, between patterns of flow and the discordance of balance and asymmetry. His forms seem to outline volumetric space while their physicality presents an illusion of solid and massive sculptural mediums through the simulation of the materials used (granite, marble), in reality are open and empty, thus questioning their object-hood. In this way, he explores his interest in both the philosophical properties of physical objects (granite, marble) and a modern environment that is subject to constant change (resin/plastic, glass).

To further highlight the idea of birth, the artist incorporates half spherical forms randomly placed (but somehow visually deliberate in their placements) on the surface of the object suggesting fluidity and movement. By using mirror-finish stainless steel, he creates an illusion of liquid or water drops, water as the most basic stuff of life, cleansing and regenerative. The reflective quality of stainless steel act in counterpoint to the solidity of the physical sculpture presenting to us a reflection of the moving surrounding in an almost painterly point of view, which shifts, when we shift our focus, back to the solid object in all its immutable logic. A sense of fleeting motion and entanglement is captured instantaneously with our respective gaze. The gentle swelling of the liquid forms, caused by the cohesive forces of surface tension and the organic shapes of the objects as a whole gives us a formally/aesthetically fulfilling visual experience at an almost elemental level.