20 March 2009

Chained to the bed, a real story

Lying on an old bed made of iron, Elaine was almost in tears, on the verge of screaming, in despair. She and her partner-to-be, Clocou, were in a typical cheap tiny bedroom in a motel in São Paulo city. Different from The United States, motels, usually situated next to the motorways, are used by lovers who rent a bedrom for four hours to "have fun". Red cotton sheets, mirrors on the roof and on three walls, smell of eucalyptus coming from the sauna in the bathroom, clothes everywhere, a dim red light next to the double sized bed. Suddenly Elaine shouted after looking her reflection in the mirror on the roof, as if she had woken up and smelt the coffee. That was reality, not a fantasie. She hadn´t any control of the situation. Just her short boyfriend. Fantasies have a price as everything in life! Elaine should now that. Anyway, he (now ex-partner to be) was smilling to her. She had had a phantasy in which her partner chained her to the "love bed" due to the fact that she wanted to be controlled by him. After telling him, a month ago, he accepted gladly the challenge buying the chains and making her fantasies come true. So, after listening to her shout, he was puzzled. "What had happened?" he thought, "It was her wish!". Nevertheless, when Elaine got chained, she thought that he would take her and the bed to the river and throw them there. "How, on earth, could you imagine that a 5,09 ft man could remove you and the double-sized bed to a river using a motorbike?" I asked Elaine, this week, when she told me. In fact, she really imagined, at that time, that he could do that. Maybe, Freud or Lacan´s theories could explain "her imagination".I have already read that we have phantasies as a play of a imagination.Besides, we don´t want to make true all our phantasies.Anyway, fantasies are good for our imagination, when we write, when we create anything we want.However, we should be careful to make them true.

05 March 2009

More Tarsila do Amaral for everybody!








































































Although I have written about "hot weather" to post here, after reading many comments, I am convinced that I should write, firstly, more about Tarsila do Amaral, because many people liked the photos posted here, before. Well, if you see Madureira (4th picture) you will notice a kind of "Eifiel Tower" in the middle of a slum area with black people in Rio de Janeiro. Madureira was painted in 1924 when Tarsila came to Brazil in Carnival. This mixing of cultures: she had studied in Paris getting back to Brazil can be understood as a conflict between the two cultures. The mass of colours contrast with the other Tarsila´s paintings where she paints with soft pastels. The theme of A Negra (The black woman, 3rd picture) is connected with Tarsila´s childhood: the slave (the black woman) that feeds the babies, very common at that time in Brazil. So, another part of Tarsila´s biography. We can feel the immobility of the A Negra, her deformation shape, cubism behind the woman, the sad look in her eyes, the Brazilian style. In Antropofagia (2nd picture) there is a matching between Abaporu and A Negra. In Ovo or Urutu (The Egg, first picture) we can feel frightening. However, egg means birthing, something new that comes out. There are so many things to see about Tarsila´s works. Besides, many pictures to gaze at, to enjoy, to keep into ourselves what we have learnt. If someone is interested in Modernism in Brazil (1920`s) read Oswald de Andrade, among other Brazilian authors.