The End Begins at the Leaf

About

Systematic deforestation alongside illicit mining operations in the Amazon pose a major threat to Brazil’s complex ecosystems. With the current administration supporting deforestation and mining in areas formally protected by law, land has been stripped of vegetation, waterways have been polluted, and the protection of human rights and the environment have been undermined. The works in the exhibition approach this devastating constellation through a poetic reflection on materials and processes that relate to these disputed territories.

The leaf serves as an aesthetic departure point and thinking device through which contested issues are teased out. The End Begins at the Leaf thereby explores larger interrelations that range from the exploitation of land and people to the transformation of natural resources into commodities and their circulation in a global market economy. Is this how the end begins?

Antonio Tarsis (b.1995) is a self-taught artist from Salvador, Brazil. Using the city itself as his laboratory and source of research, Tarsis takes a critical view of subjects like environmental devastation, colonisation/decolonisation, the black body and the genocide of the black population in Brazil.

Anderson Borba (b. 1972) is a London-based artist from Santos, Brazil. The human figure is a central subject in Borba’s practice with its representation leaning towards abstraction. He uses methods of assemblage from reclaimed wood to explore its physicality and texture.