Tex(T)

André Azevedo - Solo Exhibition
September 21, 2024 | 7 - 9 PM

Fundación Pablo Atchugarry
5520 NE 4th Ave Miami

As part of The55Project 2024 Solo Project, Brazilian artist André Azevedo spent a month in residency at El Espacio 23, where his research culminated in the works presented in Tex (T). Exploring the intersections between textiles, language, and the digital, the exhibition highlights Azevedo’s engagement with themes of tradition, technology, and the fragile balance between permanence and impermanence.

In Portuguese, the word tessitura (weaving) derives from the Latin texere (to weave), evoking the physical act of weaving and the gathering of ideas and structures, be they linguistic, social, or poetic. For Azevedo, the act of weaving mirrors the act of writing, with both processes bound by patterns, rhythms, and a desire to create meaning from intertwined elements. The parallels between fabric and text are woven into the exhibition’s conceptual framework, reflecting how both fields of creation—textile and writing—expand beyond their physical confines to embody other narratives.

At the heart of the exhibition lies Macrocélula Bosques (2024), a large white canvas structure—sewn to form a grid—and suspended by steel cables at eye level. Viewers are invited to walk around the piece and experience the malleability of the grid, which is a form traditionally perceived as rigid. Here, Azevedo reimagines the grid as a living, dynamic structure—capable of movement and reconfiguration. One can refer to this concept in the works of modernist Latin American artists like Gego and Hélio Oiticica, who used geometric abstraction to explore space, movement, and community. In Macrocélula Bosques, the grid embodies more than a formal composition—it becomes a metaphor for the fluidity of human and societal connections, where a shift in one part reconfigures the entire structure. As the grid fluctuates between rigidity and malleability, it speaks to the artist’s broader investigation into how social and technological systems intertwine and adapt.

As viewers experience Macrocélula Bosques from afar, the structure’s scale evokes the natural movement of waves. With works such as Tropical America (2024) in the background, which is composed of images of palm trees, and Aurora (2024), resembling the sun, this mirage-like landscape quality of the exhibition’s layout ties into Azevedo’s overarching reflection on how textiles, at their core, mirror systems of interconnectedness. The pieces work together like a constellation, an integrated system, yet each part retains its individuality. This balance between unity and fragmentation parallels the contrasts Azevedo draws between the digital and the analog.

Azevedo challenges the exuberance of textile art, adding a layer of tension to its creation and form. Through this approach, he pushes textile work into a subtle yet intense conceptual tension space. Cartelas (2024)—an installation of Jacquard punch cards—further explores these connections. Historically, Jacquard punch cards were used to program complex textile patterns on looms, which later influenced the development of binary computing.

Azevedo’s suspended punch cards allow light to filter through, emphasizing the convergence of craft and innovation, and tracing a line from the tactile origins of textile technology to the digitized systems that dominate contemporary communication. This transformation of physical material into a system of codes is at the heart of Azevedo’s practice, which frequently juxtaposes the handmade with the machine-driven.

Through a series of works created with a typewriter, Azevedo examines the poetic possibilities of language with cognates—words that sound or are spelled similarly across different languages. For this project, he focused on cognate within English, Spanish, and Portuguese—echoing the interconnectedness of the languages spoken in Miami. Cognates serve as linguistic and visual threads connecting cultures, ideas, and histories, emphasizing the shared human experience that transcends national and linguistic borders. Linen canvases adorned with typewritten text reveal cognate pairs— “Tropical and America,” “Digital and Real,” “Natural and Artificial.” The typewritten text evokes the repetitive, rhythmic process of weaving, where each word, like a thread, contributes to the larger composition. These linguistic elements echo how a narrative, like a textile, is constructed through carefully intertwining individual parts. In works such as Hidrotela Metálica (2024), Azevedo introduces the theme of impermanence. Created from water-soluble textiles, part of these works dissolve when submerged in water, leaving behind only the embroidered or sewn threads. The dissolution of the fabric speaks to the ephemeral nature of material existence, highlighting the transient beauty of objects and the inevitability of change. In Azevedo’s work, the behind-the-scenes is as crucial as the final creation, suggesting that both processes are integral to understanding the material world. The tension between what remains and what fades away mirrors the poetic lines he explores in each work— threads that hold their form but are always on the verge of unraveling.

Punched Card (2024) continues this concept exploration within the textile materiality. A single thread weaves itself into a fabric, symbolizing the interconnectedness of ideas, individuals, and societies. Just as one single thread contributes to the integrity of the fabric, each individual or idea plays a role in shaping the social and conceptual frameworks within which they exist. The work emphasizes the individual and collective relationship, mirroring how personal actions and thoughts intertwine to form broader, cohesive narratives.

Azevedo’s works draw viewers into a contemplation of the interconnectedness between materials, languages, and systems—whether social, technological, or artistic. By merging physicality with narrative, his pieces delve into the tension between permanence and impermanence, digital and analog, the visible and hidden. These contrasts reflect not only on the materiality of textiles but on the human experience itself, where individual actions and collective frameworks coexist in a delicate balance.

Tex (T) challenges viewers to engage with Azevedo’s works from a distance and up close, offering a dual experience where realistic and abstract imagery gives way to intricate details, words, and threads forming each composition. As the viewer moves between distance and proximity, the textiles transcend their material form, becoming a new language with limitless possibilities. This interplay between structure and fragmentation embodies Azevedo’s broader exploration of life, technology, and human experience, inviting us to reflect on the fragile yet powerful threads that bind individuals, communities, and technologies in an ever-shifting world.

Jennifer Inacio