O russo + Túnel

"The research that led me to the pieces Túnel and O russo (Tunnel and The Russian) is not separate from the research process I was conducting before. They are paintings based on images found on the Internet. More than just developing a painting style, I try to position myself as a subject in the face of different images and to develop a way to represent their narratives; I also approach representation as a staging of the facts found therein. Thus, I am interested in a contamination by other mediums, other languages, rather than in a painting that strictly tries to address issues pertaining to the medium at hand. This is done without losing sight of the character of painting as an object, or of issues relating to the pictorial language itself. 

O russo is an image taken from a film; the title came afterwards, suggested by the density of the portrait, a character that could have been in a Russian novel. This painting is dry and fast, there is not much excess, not much seduction regarding the matter. The piece Túnel, especially when shown beside this portrait, becomes somewhat suspenseful. Here, the painting is a bit more fluid, and its structure boasts a more geometrical design, that is akin to an abstraction. The meaning of each painting can change depending on what is next to it. Together, they can be part of one single narrative. 

I could never uphold special aspects of these two particular works; they are part of a sort of constellation. I am interested in a reading that, instead of focusing on given issues, paves the way to different interferences, in a sort of constant dispersion; a nomadism that is ultimately an interpretation of the world and possibly a poetic approach." 

Ana Prata in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (October 2013)