What A Facade! Exhibit in the {LIPS} Gallery
What A Facade: Horror Vacui art installation by Kelly Ann Pinho
[in conjunction with]
Lilly Ribeiro's Do You Eat the Head? wood cutting board series
In Kelly Ann Pinho's latest art installation she explores her identity by creating a horror vacui, a term that literally means "fear of empty space".
I truly have a fear of the empty spaces left over from my childhood. Horror vacui refers to a visual style in art that means to cover an entire space or piece in detail. To fill the empty space. This work is about filling the empty spaces in my identity as an adoptee by using my love of all things alternative and my fear of identifying as a Portuguese American. Growing up hearing "Well you're not really Portuguese" left me without a sense of belonging and I had to create my own identity. As a teenager, I found parts of myself through the alternative scene in the 90's and I quickly found my self becoming enamored with so-called "Alternative" music. By recreating Azulejos, a form of traditional Portuguese tile work used to fill empty spaces, I honor my own aesthetic and code of honor by using black paint instead of the traditional blue. And use patterns inspired by my favorite Raymond Pettibon's punk rock cool iconic image the Black Flag logo, instead of the traditional Portuguese tile patterns to symbolize how I constantly fill in the blanks as reference to my identity as an adoptee. ~Kelly Ann Pinho
Luso-American, Lilly Ribeiro's Do You Eat the Head? wood cutting board series also explores the artist's cultural identity, and social taboos.