The art of Rita Loureiro

"Boi vento" (Ox wind), by Rita Loureiro

Image source: http://animaelibri.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/arte-rita-loureiro.html

There is a mysterious illustration on the cover of the 1984 English translation of  Mário de Andrade's book "Macunaíma" (1928):

Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1099648.Macuna_ma

The artwork is by Rita Loureiro (not to be confused with the Brazilian actress of the same name).

What struck me is the alien feeling of it. It does not look to me like what a European artist might do, and one senses some informed, intuitive connection with the weird subject.

It's not easy to find much about Loureiro on the Web, at least not in English, but this site gives a few biographical details: http://animaelibri.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/arte-rita-loureiro.html.

According to this, she was born in 1952 in the old rubber plantation town of Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest (Amazonas Region). [Manaus may ring a bell with you: it's where an Irish fortune-seeker carried a steamship over the mountains, as in the film "Fitzcarraldo."] Loureiro moved to Rio de Janeiro to begin her career as an artist but (if I understand correctly) returned to the rainforest region to develop her art and understanding of the aboriginals/first peoples.

It seems she produced a number of illustrations for "Macunaíma", which don't appear in the English translation and as yet I haven't established exactly which edition (this limited edition from 1984? or this?) of this seminal Brazilian work does contain them, though here are a couple:

Image source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/119978777556191067/

http://nabc.org.br/arquivo/nabcIII63/loureiro.jpg

There is more of her work to be found here, at the Itaú Cultural centre in São Paulo:
http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa1387/rita-loureiro

Desfoliante Naranja (1983) [Orange defoliant] Image citation

Boi Floresta (1982) [Ox Forest] Image citation

A Dança da Morte (1989) [The dance of Death] Image citation

Carta Pras Icamabias (1981) [Letter to the Amazons - illustration for "Macunaíma"] Image citation

To me, it seems that an overarching theme or approach is seeing humans in a context full of meaning, whether social, natural or cultural-religious-magical, a turning away from the modern "homeless mind" and entirely in keeping with Andrade's  disgusted view of São Paulo as seen through Macunaíma's forest-bred eyes.

This photo of Pinacoteca do Estado is courtesy of TripAdvisor

See reviews (2015 - 2017) of the gallery in Manaus here:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g303235-d2364491-r394775627-Pinacoteca_do_Estado-Manaus_Amazon_River_State_of_Amazonas.html#UR394775627

That's not to make the savages into hygienised Walt Disney characters; one of Andrade's chapters describes a macumba rite involving nudity, unbridled sex and uninhibited violence against a female temporarily possessed by a demon so that Macunaíma can by proxy inflict his revenge on a rival. Macumba is an umbrella term for a group of religious-magical syntheses - local, African and Christian - see https://www.britannica.com/topic/Macumba.

The Galeria do Largo in her home town of Manaus has a web page on her from her 2006 exhibition there, which also lists some of her previous shows. One of these was "Boi Tema" (Ox Theme) in 1984 and after, turned into a book in 1987. The ox is celebrated in various ways across Brazil, in death-and-rebirth rituals known as the Bumba-meu-boi.  A 2004 guide to Barcelona says that in Brazil, the celebration has its roots in nineteenth century cattle farming there, though of course the ox has ritual significance in many other places in the world; but the same guide refers to a Bantu festival centred around an ox named Geroa; I had thought that the Bantu were in South or South-West Africa but it seems they originated in the angle of west Africa by modern day Nigeria/Cameroon; so quite possibly one of the roots of Bumba-meu-boi springs from the cultural complex transmitted to South America via the West African slave trade.

O Boi, a Morte do Verde e a Represa (1984) [The ox, the death of the green land, and the dam] Image citation

Like Andrade, then, Rita Loureiro's art is a transmission of the old world's voice to the new and rootless incomers.

A green New Year's Eve meteor streaks across UK skies

On The Eighth Day Of Christmas

Did China just send the USA a coded military message?

Last night there was a display of mini-drones in formation over Guangzhou, ostensibly to celebrate the New Year.

But clearly coordinating over 1,000 drones so perfectly is unlikely to be a job for an army of fallible humans.

Imagine a battlefield where instead of dumping 500-pound smart-guided bombs out of circling jet fighters with only a short "playtime" to kill a handful of insurgents, a swarm of computer-controlled heat-seeking/visually guided dronelets seek out and kill individuals precisely and cheaply, with a few ounces of explosive each.

The potential has been discussed online within the last two years, e.g. here:

https://scout.com/military/warrior/Article/Air-Force-Seeks-Swarms-of-Attack-Mini-Drones-101454682

Was China saying, we're there now and woe betide etc.?

NYE: East meets West

In Australia, New Year's Eve fireworks really go with a bang:



... while in Guangzhou, the night has a thousand eyes drones...



(htp: RT.com)

On The Seventh Day Of Christmas

Hogmanay revels continue

A guid New Year to ane an` a` and mony may ye see!

While New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world, the Scots have a long rich heritage associated with this event - and we have our own name for it, Hogmanay.

There are many theories about the derivation of the word "Hogmanay". The Scandinavian word for the feast preceding Yule was "Hoggo-nott" while the Flemish words (many have come into Scots) "hoog min dag" means "great love day". Hogmanay could also be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon, Haleg monath, Holy Month, or the Gaelic, oge maidne, new morning. But the most likely source seems to be the French. "Homme est né" or "Man is born" while in France the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged was "aguillaneuf" while in Normandy presents given at that time were "hoguignetes". Take your pick!

In Scotland a similar practice to that in Normandy was recorded, rather disapprovingly, by the Church. "It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane." Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693.

Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years. (I think it became a public holiday round about 1960.) The reason for Christmas not being celebrated has its roots in the Protestant Reformation when the Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore had to be banned. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was therefore at New Year when family and friends gathered for a party and exchange presents, especially for the children. There are traditions before midnight such as cleaning the house on 31st December (including taking out the ashes from the fire in the days when coal fires were common). There is also the superstition to clear all your debts before "the bells" at midnight. (I wonder how many people still try to clear their debts!)

An integral part of the Hogmanay partying, which continues very much today, is to welcome friends and strangers, with warm hospitality to wish everyone a Guid New Year. The underlying belief is to clear out the vestiges of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young, New Year on a happy note.

"First footing" (that is, the "first foot" in the house after midnight) is not as common as it used to be in Scotland. To ensure good luck for the house, the first foot should be male, dark (believed to be a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble) and should bring symbolic coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and whisky. These days, however, whisky and perhaps shortbread are the only items still prevalent and very welcome they are!.

And of course it has become traditional to overindulge and wake up the following day with a 'sair heid'. -