In Sonia Gomes’ Raízes series #1, 2020, a fragment of wood lies upon the floor, cocooned in cloth on one end. A tall white pole extends upwards from the wood, ending in a bundle of fabrics of various hues and textures. Standing at over five feet tall, this mixed media sculpture is a commanding presence, and an excellent example of Gomes’ longstanding interest in using found materials to craft intricate, organic installations.
“Brazilian people are very used to working with what they already have. I work with what I have and with things that arrive to me. I feel there is an ancestral heritage behind what I do and that my work touches on elements of our African heritage as Brazilians.”
—Sonia Gomes
The wood in Raízes series #1 comes from the root of a tree swept away by a landslide in Mariana, Brazil in 2015. The Mariana dam disaster occurred when a dam at the Germano iron ore mine near Gomes’ home state of Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, suffered a catastrophic failure, resulting in flooding that devastated downstream villages. Having been born and raised in nearby, this catastrophe held a personal resonance for the artist. As Gomes has said, “Not everything is art, but art can be anything.”i Gomes reclaims this wood from the site of the incident, transforming something from a devastating ecological context into a healing art object.
Gomes was born in Caetanópolis, a onetime textile hub, in the state of Minas Gerais in 1948. It is no wonder then that textiles would become a preoccupation throughout her artistic development. With her mother having passed away when the artist was only three years old, Gomes was raised by her maternal grandmother, a shaman, who made rodilhas (cloth turbans) and gris-gris (Voodoo amulets). Through her relationship with her grandmother, Gomes was exposed to handicraft and spirituality at an early age. The sensibility of folk cures is imbued within her oeuvre and exemplified in Raízes series #1.
While Gomes would go on to pursue a career in law well into her forties, she ultimately found her way back to textile art in the 1990s. Featuring found objects and gifted fabrics, Gomes' work has become known for its assemblages that weave together disparate cultures and memories. As a largely self-taught artist who began her art career mid-life, Gomes is an inspirational story. In 2018, Gomes became the first living Afro-Brazilian woman to have a monographic show at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). Her work was included in the 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, in 2015 and will again be featured at the Biennale this summer in the pavilion of The Holy See.
