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"FIRMAMENT: THE VAULT OF THE SKY, SOLID AND ABIDING, THE DWELLING OF CELESTIAL BODIES."
Debora Hirsch, 2021 -
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Firmamento
(2018 - Present)Themes of power and control are salient in Debora Hirsch’s most expansive series to date, Firmamento. The chosen title refers to a biblical conception of the Earth’s makeup: in the Old Testament, it was believed that when God created the Earth, He created a solid dome (the “firmament”) which made up the sky and held the entirety of the visible cosmos.
Hirsch’s title is not necessarily religious. Rather, her poetic cosmological reference aims to uncover questions and ideas surrounding human perception, constructed worlds, colonizations, and bounded / boundless sensibilities. It is, in a sense, a meditation on the complex (and unequal) harmony of human life across varying temporalities, simultaneously replete with beauty and ugliness.
Primarily elaborated in painting and video, Firmamento ties together several themes in Hirsch’s practice via intricate configurations of her amassed archive. It is an ongoing project, which she describes as a culmination of her previous work’s conceptual underpinnings.
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Historic rivers navigated by colonizers aimed at exploring and exploiting the land, generated the hugest slave traffic from Africa in history. Rivers are mixed with intrusive Colonial Architecture / objects.
Debora Hirsch on Firmamento (tree)
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Preliminary Sketches
Firmamento (Nucleus) -
Videos
The lyrically unfolding imagery of the video art in the Firmamento series similarly works to uncover cross-temporal information from the colonial past and present, with heavy references to internet culture. In Hirsch’s titular video, Firmamento, the artist has created a visual that meditatively unfolds. As she juxtaposes footage from the natural world with colonial imagery, she layers dotted and geometric configurations generated by digital software. By placing these together, Hirsch emphasizes their constant recurrence and connections in the current time.
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Firmamento
2019 Digital video and animation, Duration 6', Edition of 3 plus 1 APThis fragmented superimposition of seemingly disconnected elements draws attention to the common interconnected network which we are all dependent on. In this video, through the merging of softly undulating organic beings with erratic digital disturbances and sterile environments, elements are denaturalized. By combining colonialist imagery, religious edifices and starkly modern animation, this video highlights the links between the colonization of the Americas and the new age of digital colonialism.
Image:
(gif) Firmamento
2019
Digital video and animation
Duration 6'
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Binary Fresco
2020 Digital video and animation Duration 3’ 49” Edition of 3 plus 1 APBeginning with a static image of a fresco supporting a series of binary events, and switching to consecutive situations, in which animated data graphics, and isolated natural forms slide over stormy clouds, monuments and oceans alike. These scenes share a common stage of invasive reciprocity; ordinary forms and instruments become mutual viruses in a harmonic and unexpected coexistence.
Image:
(gif) Binary Fresco
2020
Digital video and animation
Duration 3' 49"
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Planet
2021, Digital video and animation Duration 5' 30'' Edition of 3 plus 1 APIn a looped sequence, this video displays constantly morphing images – generated as by-products of artificial intelligence's representational systems. Fragments of known figures escape former recognition through symmetry and speed, only to merge and re-emerge in a constant implosive admixture of machine signifiers. Ultimately, this sequence results in the creation of an alternative existence, with their own inner ways of processing and creating knowledge.
Image:
(gif) Planet
2020
Digital video and animation
Duration 3' 49"
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Donotclickthru
2016In the series Donotclickthru (2016), Debora Hirsch utilizes humor, irony, and the codified language of clickbait to create works that comment on the type of communication facilitated by the internet. Hirsch explores how technology allows for interactivity and the possibility of democratic conversations, it also asks users to pay a price: lack of privacy, overexposure, and a predicted provoked reaction.
Much like actual clickbait, they enticingly make reference to possible future knowledge through seemingly random images. Rather than potentially exploiting the internet user, these drawings leave the viewer in a humorously contemplative state. Originally presented via an interactive website, Donotclickthru straddles a space between the analog and the digital.
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Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (The Know Everything About You. Even This), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
8 x 9 cm -
Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (10 Paragraphs About Lists You Need in Your Life Right Now), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
8 x 9 cm -
Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (They Got Inside A Capsule. You'll Not Guess Where They Stepped out), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
8 x 9 cm -
Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (Top 10 Influential People Who Never Lived), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
8 x 9 cm
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Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (This Addiction Is The Most Difficult To Overcome. It Is Not Coke), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper
3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
8 x 9 cm -
Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (Should We Worry About Our Cat's Acne?), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
8 x 9 cm -
Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (Ready-Made Information To Fill The Void Of Contemplative Wisdom), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
8 x 9 cm -
Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (How To Have an Opinion Without Watching A Fiction That Supports It), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper
3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
7.9 x 8.9 cm
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Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (19 Situations In Which What Should Be A Blessing Becomes A Curse), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
7.9 x 8.9 cm -
Debora Hirschdonotclickthru (10 Amazing Places Where There is Power and Therefore Resistance), 2016Ink on Japanese tracing paper3 1/8 x 3 1/2 in
7.9 x 8.9 cm
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Accompanying donotclickthru, Hirsch created an Azulejo mosaic of an Otto Van Veen engraving originally published in Teatro Moral De La Vida Humana in the 16th century. Hirsch explains:
"The format of the book [Teatro Moral De La Vida Humana] follows the format of Internet today: an appealing image and a short text that attracts you to read the full content. Additionally, the image is a kind of paradox because you see the coloniser that wants to prevail over the colony dying". -
The Iconography of Silence
The Iconography of Silence (IPV - Sentences), 2019, Mirror and ipad in laquered wooden frame, 15 1/8 x 12 3/8 in (38.2 x 31.5 cm)The Iconography of Silence (2019) is one of Debora Hirsch’s more direct references to the insidiousness of control in interpersonal dynamics of abuse and unbalanced power. This series exists as a result of Hirsch’s contribution as a volunteer in Italy and in Brazil with two organisations supporting women survivors of domestic violence.
Representative of the series, The Iconography of Silence (IPV - Sentences) is composed of a framed mirror which has red text appearing from beneath its surface, displaying phrases that have been used during moments of verbal dominance. The aggresive phrases, which are sourced directly from the internet, as well as from women Hirsch has worked with and friends, come into focus throughout the duration of the sequence. These phrases slowly blurr and layer on top of each other to create a red background. As the viewer looks into the mirrored screen, they see themselves reflected in the fraught human dynamic that plays out – as either victim, perpetrator, or bystander.
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Selected Projects
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A collaborative project between Hirsch and Italian artist Iaia Filiberti, Not in My Backyard (Here Lies Henrietta Lacks) adressed systematic racism in science and medicine through the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cancer cells were obtained without her consent, and went on to be used for life saving medical research. Lacks and her famiy were never formally credited nor compensated for the use of her biological material.
The installation displays scientific papers that repress the provenance of Lacks' cells. The central portrait and accompaning text is taken from the headstone epitaph dedicated to Lacks in 2010 after lying in a previously unidentified grave since her death in 1951.
Not in My Backyard (Here Lies Henrietta Lacks) comments on multiple issues regarding race, the ethics of human experimentation, and the immoral yet legal benefits and profits to medicine and science from the use of Lacks' cells.
Not in My Backyard (Here Lies Henrietta Lacks) was exhibited at the MOKA Museum of Contemporary art, Krakow in 2016, and at Smack Mellon, New York in 2020.
NOT IN MY BACKYARD (HERE LIES HENRIETTA LACKS)
Lambda print, frame, plexiglas box, portrait, scientific papers, 2016Pictured:
Installation view
MOKA Museum of Contemporary art, Krakow
2016
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Framed is the result of an extensive research project taken upon by Hirsch and collaborator Iaia Filiberti when they come across a trove of old-Hollywood actress headshots. Together, they reconstructed the seemingly forgotten lives of 100 actresses stemming from these photographs. Framed presents Hirsch and Filiberti's discoveries, and formally introduces these women whose journey's reveal lives that came across vulnerabilities, discrimination, and lack of respect, all while chasing the American dream.
Framed
Mixed media installation, 2013Pictured:
Installation view
Framed
Ida E Volta, MuBE Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia, São Paulo
2014
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Comissioned by the city of Mirandola after a devastating earthquake which caused damage to many historical landmarks, Hirsch designed the panels of a kiosk located at the Piazza del Duomo, just outside of the town hall. The eight panels depict the interior of the Teatro Nuovo, which was damaged in the earthquake. Hirsch also depicts members of the Pico family, who were part of the nobility during the 16th century, seated in the theater boxes. This illustrous family and historical city landmark become a part of the city architecture, staring out into the actions of daily life.
LA CITTA' IDEALE
C-print panels, 2020Pictured
La Citta' Ideale
Piazza del Duomo, Mirandola
2020
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BR-101
2008BR-101 Interview between Debora Hirsch and Gabi Scardi. View the photography series BR-101 by Debora Hirsch here
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Selected books and visual references
Debora Hirsch refers to a massive collection of books, mostly writings and visual collections by artists, historians, anthropologists, and philosophers, to inform and inspire her practice.
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Many of Hirsch's visual references are engravings by Otto Van Veen published in the book Teatro Moral De La Vida Humana, while others are paintings by Dutch painter Albert Eckhout, as well as painted ceilings found in colonial Brazilian churches.
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Walkthrough
Debora Hirsch: FirmamentoWalkthrough of Debora Hirsch: Firmamento at Hutchinson Modern & Conteporary, March 2021.
Watch on Vimeo -
Debora Hirsch
Online CatalogueYou can view our online catalogue of Debora Hirsch here.
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About The Artist
Debora Hirsch (b. 1967, São Paulo) is a Milan-based Brazilian artist. Hirsch’s multimedia conceptual practice is deeply concerned with power structures and interconnected networks. As Hirsch meticulously constructs each work, she continually investigates and calls into question themes of contemporary anthropology, perceived relationships, unnoticed realities, the prevalence of media and technology, and the colonization of the Americas. Her multimedia oeuvre often takes from the artist’s own archive – composed mainly of historical source material: art, architecture, and digital ephemera – to explore these ideas through harmonious yet complex constructions and emphasizing a “metaphysical conception of art.”
Debora Hirsch: Firmamento
Past viewing_room
