If the utilization of iron in the western culture served utilitarian purposes, the symbolic dimension associated with fire, with which it is moulded, elevated iron to an alchemical and mysterious status, the secret of which was kept by ancient blacksmiths. After a short, experimental period, when he manipulated perishable and ephemeral materials, iron became, since the 1980's, the only material that the Portuguese sculptor Rui Chafes uses for the construction of his works, which he then paints black, “erasing” any marks of production and manufacture.

Very similar in their appearance, the works - Swan I (Sovereignty and Disease)
and - Sacrifice II
evoke a formal strangeness based on an abstract language, austere and warlike. - Swan I
seems to appear as an ephemeral presence, a strange apparition lost in a memory that we think we recognize. This possible “weapon” made of vertical cylinders juxtaposed and united by metallic clamps, higher than the spectator, can either guarantee the sovereignty of existence, conceptually, or it can launch us into a disease the anguish of which could be fatal. Also made of a set of metallic cylinders installed on the wall, - Sacrifice II
shows the contrast between the lightness of its forms and the apparent weight associated to the idea of sacrifice, as the title indicates. The asymmetry of this composition lets us observe a contemporary way of reinforcing the presence of the work, demanding, in the interaction with the spectator, an experience that finally exorbitates the space-time dimension that some objects demanded within the context of neo-vanguards.



JCP