Celio Braga's installation 'Memory Unsettled' consists of three parts: a floor element measuring 2.5 by 2.5 metres made from hand- and machine-embroidered white textiles, 29 bars of soap also encased in white embroidery, and old medicine bottles that make up seven embroidered columns. The embroidery uses thread as well as human hair.
The floor element includes various pieces of white textile that Braga collected over the years from places such as Brazil, the Netherlands, France, Chile and Indonesia. The textiles are personal, used, new, old, given, collected, bought and inherited, and consist of tablecloths, pillowcases, white shirts, bedsheets, napkins, towels and baby clothes. The choice of flowers as the main motif relates to Braga's fascination with 16th- and 17th-century vanitas still life paintings from Flanders and the Netherlands. These paintings depict flowers, rotting fruits and various objects that symbolise the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures.
The 29 bars of soap, one for each day in February in a leap year, represent the act of washing the body, conveying the memory of places and locations. The seven columns of medicine bottles refer to the days of the week, symbolising eternity and endless time, ‘the source of a stream along which the minutes flow, to join the river of hours, the sea of years and the timeless ocean’ (Derek Jarman).
Braga spent three weeks in the TextielLab working on the embroidered elements with product developer Frank de Wind. This close collaboration enabled Braga to conduct in-depth research into the possible techniques and desired applications. Because the textiles used were so personal and held important memories for Braga, the individual pieces were carefully stitched together by hand.
Brazilian artist Celio Braga (1965) graduated from The Boston Museum School of Fine Arts in the United States and then studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Since graduating, Braga has worked alternately in Amsterdam and São Paulo. Through his frequent experimentation with unusual materials and craft techniques, Braga pushes the boundaries of conventional art forms, such as photography, sculpture and textiles. Recurring themes in his work are (the fragility of) the body, healing, time, death and mourning.
