EFE GODOY - Telepathic conversations on favorite subjects
june/2023
The exhibition Telepathic conversations on favorite subjects presents a turning point in Efe Godoy's trajectory. Although drawing, watercolor and painting have always been present in his works, for the first time painting becomes the central axis. His themes are recurrent: symbols of nature, sexuality and, above all, memory and hybridity in forms.
The images created or re-signified by the artist reveal hybrid beings, merging plants, animals and human beings into singular forms, with references to surrealism and psychedelic art, but which also refer to the primitivism of the art of native peoples and popular art.
The representations of these multiple anamorphoses, hybrid and charged with sexuality, stand out due to the use of images of orchids and moths, a symbol of transformation and metamorphosis used by the trans community to express the possibility of different sexes coexisting in the same being – an affirmation of gynandromorphism.
Flowers, especially orchids, are images in which the artist expresses sexual ambiguity, being represented either by lines or by detailed paintings of the phallic and ovular shapes naturally contained in the shape of that flower. The expression dialogues in an intimate way with the artist's unconscious, a place “between worlds”. Her choices break down sexuality barriers and affirm the diversity that exists in nature. Or rather, multiple natures in coexistence.
In this new moment, Efe Godoy presents a series of paintings of widely varying dimensions, photographs in which she interferes with paint and an installation made up of three sculptures. The materiality of the paint on the canvas or on the photographic images is noticeable through the simple strokes or the superimposition in more complex paintings.
In this transition of her work, Efe allows herself to blossom and experiment with different techniques. The overlap, in the case of the three large works, results from experiences lived in residences.
Two were significant and decisive: the first in Puerto Iguazú (Argentina), in the Triple Border, where the city's symbol is a moth. The second, in Serra Sagrada, in Santana do Riacho (Serra do Cipó, MG), enabled psychedelic experiences with ayahuasca, which allowed the artist an analytical and aesthetic shift from her own work.
The titles of the works express the ambiguity of desire and affection, in addition to explaining their strong relationship with music by quoting verses from contemporary authors.
Another fundamental aspect of Efe's work is memory, always related to affectivity. The discovery of an old photo album, depicting a group of women on a cruise, allowed the creation and creation of relationships with the artist's own universe and intimate (and dear) themes.
Using old and “unknown” images, Efe reworks memory with interventions and incorporates them into his anamorphic universe. A process of anthropophagy loaded with personality, quite unique, but which evokes a timeless, perhaps shamanic, memory of cyclical and other times.
Efe's work does not fit into boxes, it is a constant metamorphosis, questioning and discovery, of herself and her art.
