RAEL MENDONÇA
Practice, concepts, and methods
In my artistic production, I seek to explore the interconnections of interconnected structures that relate to life. In my artistic experiments, I observe an intrinsic curiosity for multiplicity, where systems continuously expand and transform, as seen in the concept of the Rhizome, where lines grow and connect within the infinite web of life.
In the works and research I produce, an interdisciplinary characteristic becomes evident, where physical or conceptual elements relate to the external world, constantly engaging and connecting.
I constantly strive to craft visual narratives that can foster questioning and perception about the diversity of connections among different systems in nature, humanity, virtuality, and technology. These areas, both within and beyond the context of the artwork, influence each other, expanding our perspective toward new directions.
With a keen eye on the world and its transformations, I work with manual techniques such as sculpture, drawing, and painting, as well as with technologies like audiovisual production, 3D modeling, and augmented reality. These experiments are driven by a paradoxical curiosity—both empirical and scientific—where I aim to learn and collaborate with other artists, scientists, and intellectuals whenever possible to expand knowledge and represent, in some way, my research, artworks, and concepts.
Regarding materiality, I am particularly interested in botany and materials that can symbolize a connection with nature, such as textures in paper, glass, and organic materials. I am equally fascinated by their combination with electronics and new technologies, creating blends that invite reflection on living systems and build sensory bridges. These narratives aim, in some way, to reflect on the complexity of nature through small yet transformative perceptions.
Writing is also present in my artistic practice, having recorded my first short film "Windows of the Skin", where I was both scriptwriter and director.
Research excerpts from the course conclusion work -
guidance by teacher, master and engraving visual artist Paulo Cheira Sans
Botany
All species found in the Plantae kingdom exhibit ramifications in their structure, in the leaves, branches and roots.
Trees are protagonists in the research carried out by the German Peter Wohlleben and Suzanne Simard. Their studies reveal that they communicate with each other, sharing nutrients, water and carbon, all through their roots. Researchers claim that these living beings are more than wood
waiting to be cut and to produce oxygen, they believe that they have characteristics
common relationships between other living beings. For Peter, electrical processes in the roots are similar to what happens in the brain with synapses.
“The most important way for a tree to stay connected to other species is a "broad network of
wood" of soil fungi that connects it to vegetation in an intimate network that allows the sharing of a
enormous amount of information and goods.” (WOHLLEBEN, Peter, The secret life of trees, p.3, 2015)
Mendonça elaborates visual narratives that seek to promote questioning and perception about the diversity of connections between the different rhizomes existing in nature, humanity, virtuality and technology and how they, within and outside the context of the work, influence each other. Agencies that amplify the observation of his work, lines of flight that expand into new directions.
Rizhome
The word Rhizome has meaning as a noun and as a concept. Given as a noun, it comes from botany, defined as a root growing in horizontal dimensions, it does not have a
central structure, it is the structure. It differs from the pivot root, which grows around a point called the main one. This word is used conceptually by philosophers Deleuze and Guatarri with a meaning
similar to its action in nature. The rhizome is presented as a model that fits ethics, aesthetics and
in politics and its main structure is lines of flight. Such lines seek to contact other lines,
They want to multiply, create agencies.
“An assemblage is precisely this growth of dimensions into a multiplicity that necessarily changes its nature as it increases its connections. There are no points or positions in a
rhizome as found in a structure, in a tree, in a root. There are only lines” (DELEUZE &
GUATARRI, Thousand Plateaus I, 1995 p.05)
The work of art can be considered a rhizome, as it creates arrangements of ideas and allows the
multiplicity of points of view, which generates greatness. Even though the lack of subject and object for
Even though multiplicities exist, we can think of these objects as the very motivators of these magnitudes,
perceived that they can change the nature of the thought of the person who perceives the work. Carrying out an analysis
between the concept presented here and the aesthetics of the works produced and exhibited here, the lines gain a new
sense, as can be seen in the Asymmetric Symmetry series and in all other works where the
ramifications.
“One of the most important characteristics of the rhizome is perhaps that it has
always multiple entries; ''(DELEUZE & GUATARRI, Thousand Plateaus I, 1995 p.08)
The rhizome grows wherever there is space, they go in all directions, they transform at all times, they form new relationships, if they die at some point, they are born at another, they are detached from linear patterns.
"What is at stake in the rhizome is a relationship with sexuality, but also with the animal, with the vegetable, with the world, with politics, with the book, with the things of nature and artifice, a relationship totally
different from the arborescent relationship: all kinds of "becomings". (DELEUZE & GUATARRI, Thousand Plateaus I, 1995 p.15)