“WAY THROUGH ONE ANOTHER SIDE”
Teresa Milheiro’s Puppets
Teresa Milheiro, an internationally recognized and acclaimed artist belonging to a Third Generation of Contemporary Portuguese Jewelry, develops in her work a clearly conceptual approach which not only gives the jewel an unprecedented communicative significance but also expands it into unusual territories.
For Teresa Milheiro, a jewel is, as it always should be in a contemporary approach, a predominantly communicative vehicle, a privileged portrait of our time and of the world we live in, which the artist uses to develop her fascinating analytical comments on the daily reality that surrounds her/us.
In Teresa Milheiro’s jewels, we often find profound, at times finely ironic, reflections on Fashion or on Beauty, phenomena which today’s Media fuel exceedingly and which the jewel apparently supports, or, in a more profound dimension, wise reflections on the human condition itself, life or death.
Unleashing the jewel into new territories, Teresa Milheiro has already used sculpture in her work, creating sculpture-jewels that recall fantasy insects, and now she does it again with superior mastery.
Resorting to the totally universal masterpiece that makes up the trilogy of Autos das Barcas, which the immortal Gil Vicente bequeathed to us, Teresa Milheiro has transformed her jewels into fascinating puppets: Hell, Purgatory and Glory (or Heaven) are summoned here in a poignant portrayal of the Contemporary World and of our human and mortal condition.
The preciseness of Jewelry combines with a meticulous narrative that, starting with our first great dramatist, dissects the reality of our time.
Do you remember the Alcoviteira (Procuress) of Auto da Barca do Inferno who brought with her Seiscentos virgos postiços / Duas arcas de feitiços (Six hundred fake hymens / Two trunks full of spells)?
She seems innocent compared to today’s Procuress who, reviewed by Teresa Milheiro, summons human trafficking networks or the corresponding octopus mafia with hypnotic eyes, crafted in symbolic gold.
The crushing power of multinationals, greed, insane materialism, the emptiness of values, the duality of Good versus Evil inherent in human beings, Innocence, the global economic system, alienation, clerical hypocrisy (perhaps more alive today than it was in Gil Vicente’s time), racial and civilasational hate, are other possible interpretations of these puppets of adults who are perpetually evolving on the World Stage.
Rui Afonso Santos
“WAY THROUGH ONE ANOTHER SIDE” Teresa Milheiro at Museu do Dinheiro, Curated by Sara Barriga 2016
Temporary exhibition that took place between June 30 to October 15 2016.
Within the scope of Plano Tangente: a program of temporary exhibitions of the Money Museum that aimed at disseminating the emerging artistic productionz in various media. The program presented the work of Portuguese contemporary artists in dialogue with the museum architecture and the collections.
During the course of the exhibition there was a guided visit by Teresa Milheiro.