Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com Catarina Fontoura Sun, 30 Oct 2022 05:42:02 +0000 https://catfontoura.com en Dying into love https://catfontoura.com/Dying-into-love Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:27:05 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/Dying-into-love D Y I N G&nbsp; &nbsp; I N T O&nbsp; &nbsp;L O V E &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; (work in progress) ‘Rotten wood is a good teacher. Can’t you see?’ she said. ‘It says: 'Death is becoming multiple, slow-releasing and exquisitely contaminated with beings you thought weren't you'. <img width="4080" height="2720" width_o="4080" height_o="2720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5716f5935b702fd23829b15ec2227ebd3c6015a7ee49cacde073fc81e72109a7/treefallen.jpg" data-mid="156588456" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5716f5935b702fd23829b15ec2227ebd3c6015a7ee49cacde073fc81e72109a7/treefallen.jpg" /><img width="7717" height="5788" width_o="7717" height_o="5788" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9070ab2290d07cea30271140327eca9496323f808e09b9b679a8f29f34bb01e6/tree_05_small.jpg" data-mid="156588457" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9070ab2290d07cea30271140327eca9496323f808e09b9b679a8f29f34bb01e6/tree_05_small.jpg" /><img width="5613" height="7483" width_o="5613" height_o="7483" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/073f51d477cd06f16c0365b08a6fbdc3ef95fa18b148757187255fb0522ad59e/trees_02_small.jpg" data-mid="156588458" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/073f51d477cd06f16c0365b08a6fbdc3ef95fa18b148757187255fb0522ad59e/trees_02_small.jpg" /><img width="3508" height="2480" width_o="3508" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ac54f5a24e7f0f32e7d033e121e35357bd38d24cff5dde642b04522f3c0911a6/test-for-website2.jpg" data-mid="156590042" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ac54f5a24e7f0f32e7d033e121e35357bd38d24cff5dde642b04522f3c0911a6/test-for-website2.jpg" /><img width="6000" height="4500" width_o="6000" height_o="4500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fff997dc4d829e00453fb6e7d63dd5df70779ede155d3c5c34b06a49c693d73b/trees_06_small.jpg" data-mid="156588460" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fff997dc4d829e00453fb6e7d63dd5df70779ede155d3c5c34b06a49c693d73b/trees_06_small.jpg" /><img width="4500" height="6000" width_o="4500" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aabdf900247e0baa0e31381b8e21628f191a490ddb7910ec9aa26b62df788e81/trees_03_small.jpg" data-mid="156588461" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aabdf900247e0baa0e31381b8e21628f191a490ddb7910ec9aa26b62df788e81/trees_03_small.jpg" /><img width="8121" height="6046" width_o="8121" height_o="6046" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8848142638fbfa10b168b725666dfe33758342136b6b2d3ba4eaf6106b6fa511/tree-cementenry_01_small.jpg" data-mid="156588463" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8848142638fbfa10b168b725666dfe33758342136b6b2d3ba4eaf6106b6fa511/tree-cementenry_01_small.jpg" /><img width="3744" height="5616" width_o="3744" height_o="5616" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8f9a4d6843748c489e94fa3e155c0a830b752deef4e5f676f9434b068e2e17a7/Fallen_Trees_05.jpg" data-mid="156588464" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8f9a4d6843748c489e94fa3e155c0a830b752deef4e5f676f9434b068e2e17a7/Fallen_Trees_05.jpg" /><img width="1701" height="1133" width_o="1701" height_o="1133" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/96086f8e930975024618e81d9178f67dcfea200fa5dc35f6abd4f36be6d2b1dc/treeglen.jpg" data-mid="157323866" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/96086f8e930975024618e81d9178f67dcfea200fa5dc35f6abd4f36be6d2b1dc/treeglen.jpg" /> Invocations https://catfontoura.com/Invocations Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:48:20 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/Invocations I N V O C A T I O N S&nbsp;'Invocations' is an exploration of a series of particular encounter between humans and insects, moths are the protagonists but by no means the only non-human characters in these invocations. Bats, mayflies and old men orbit the moth trap light spaces and ,in their way, tell the story of moths.This work is an invitation o inhabit and imagine a shared space between humans and moths, to access new realities.It proposes that imagining other forms / conditions / expressions of life, alongside considering ourselves not as mere external observers, but as part of the same plane of existence and experience, are important parts of facing the joy and grief of reality in the anthropocene.&nbsp;It is also a journey to understand what non-scientific enquiry means in scientific contexts. In ‘Invocations’, Catarina Fontoura attended and photographed moth monitoring meet ups in England and Wales, for over two year years. As non-scientist in the field, she becomes at ease with being seen as an undecipherable participant,&nbsp; running and danding with moths in the night.&nbsp;Moths are an indicator species, their distribution and numbers are undeniable evidence of dangerous heating up of our climate, of ecological collapse and loss of biodiversity. ‘Invocations’ enquires what imapct listening to the moths may have as we face the violent environmental changes of our lifetimes.&nbsp; <img width="1890" height="1633" width_o="1890" height_o="1633" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d429d2eaf1c098bd6a5b22e0962cdda61c9e64017c62c7381cb3870c2f38d8d/ffwe.jpg" data-mid="157324825" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d429d2eaf1c098bd6a5b22e0962cdda61c9e64017c62c7381cb3870c2f38d8d/ffwe.jpg" /> <img width="793" height="600" width_o="793" height_o="600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b141e39b39161c87dfd4edb5139f85311c864b2522222e29f7fef68a16b2b242/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_02_793.jpeg" data-mid="157325090" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/793/i/b141e39b39161c87dfd4edb5139f85311c864b2522222e29f7fef68a16b2b242/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_02_793.jpeg" /> <img width="5616" height="3744" width_o="5616" height_o="3744" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/917b25d3e362681162893acdbbdf35b48f66d1ad46050ab0f7539875a3b8f810/moth_turner_house.jpg" data-mid="157324829" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/917b25d3e362681162893acdbbdf35b48f66d1ad46050ab0f7539875a3b8f810/moth_turner_house.jpg" /> <img width="1378" height="919" width_o="1378" height_o="919" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a639373a1d97f8e62869ab7d63b47fe53d865fd28e030a6a0519f0d849c9e2d3/final7.jpg" data-mid="157324827" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a639373a1d97f8e62869ab7d63b47fe53d865fd28e030a6a0519f0d849c9e2d3/final7.jpg" /> <img width="479" height="600" width_o="479" height_o="600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/148b54131b60d105881b663b1f1bac7fcad52d08485edde5d41046d53813939c/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_10_479.jpeg" data-mid="157325094" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/479/i/148b54131b60d105881b663b1f1bac7fcad52d08485edde5d41046d53813939c/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_10_479.jpeg" /> <img width="900" height="600" width_o="900" height_o="600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c96e862166795369b7c7ece8ab340c37d6775763b83f2a9f0e0c6dcb1cde295e/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_03_900.jpeg" data-mid="157325091" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/900/i/c96e862166795369b7c7ece8ab340c37d6775763b83f2a9f0e0c6dcb1cde295e/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_03_900.jpeg" /> <img width="1890" height="1260" width_o="1890" height_o="1260" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/258971e5ffe8e5fdfd1c8f487dd4c57527c948a910f1c9e6da72bd00756cbdb2/ffwe4.jpg" data-mid="157324826" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/258971e5ffe8e5fdfd1c8f487dd4c57527c948a910f1c9e6da72bd00756cbdb2/ffwe4.jpg" /> <img width="900" height="600" width_o="900" height_o="600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7d1ab61f0325784b479e2dda4109fbe9dc9da6c3475b5d4b783f928f00a2c97e/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_09_900.jpeg" data-mid="157325092" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/900/i/7d1ab61f0325784b479e2dda4109fbe9dc9da6c3475b5d4b783f928f00a2c97e/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_09_900.jpeg" /> <img width="3508" height="4650" width_o="3508" height_o="4650" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ecd9fb2da848f1d211fbaef395fa989b14ac3122ce520946efba37a4130124a0/in-flight-grid.jpg" data-mid="157325081" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ecd9fb2da848f1d211fbaef395fa989b14ac3122ce520946efba37a4130124a0/in-flight-grid.jpg" /> <img width="461" height="600" width_o="461" height_o="600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/334f62afe512b08637f1edabdcb333cfbc6c02b3eae368050bcda836c4346205/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_11_461.jpeg" data-mid="157325095" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/461/i/334f62afe512b08637f1edabdcb333cfbc6c02b3eae368050bcda836c4346205/Prata_CatarinaFontoura_Invocations_11_461.jpeg" /> 154 Cork Oaks Marked to be felled https://catfontoura.com/154-Cork-Oaks-Marked-to-be-felled Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:27:05 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/154-Cork-Oaks-Marked-to-be-felled 1 5 4&nbsp; &nbsp; C O R K&nbsp; &nbsp; O A K S&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;M A R K E D&nbsp; &nbsp; T O&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;B E&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;F E L L E D ‘154 cork oaks marked to the felled’ is the first chapter of a project of creative pracrtice and land stewardship in collaboration with my brother @afonsogfontoura.&nbsp;The ‘montado’ - cork oak forest - is a natural ecosystem created by humans and of which man is an enmeshed part of. It is traditional to Alentejo in the interior south east of Portugal. This is where I grew up.Typically made up of Sobreiros/Cork Oaks (Quercus Suber), Azinheiras/Holm Oaks(Quercus Rotundifolia), other oaks, many bushes and fungi, chamomille and pennyroyal in the winter and spring and Saharan soft and hot winds in the summer called 'ventos sirocos'. Sheep and goats can inhabit it in small numbers side by side wild folk, like wild boar, foxes, bats and the loud cicada people. The montado is a protected ecosystem and vulnerable to the changes we are living and the ones we see coming. Our grandfather João Rafael Gancho bought this piece of cork oak forest in Alentejo the 1980’s, where we both grew up. The trees were worked for cork and the land exploited for raising cattle, until very recently. These practices, alongside very apparent climate change have degraded the forest, eroded, dried and acidified the soil and made it unwelcoming for many species who lived there before. It won't stand forever, but whilst it does, my family - specially my brother - is employing regenerative and rewilding practices and loving water management, to give it the peace and agency it deserves.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; I am not geographically close by,&nbsp; but I will document this process, and give it what I can.&nbsp; <img width="1701" height="2268" width_o="1701" height_o="2268" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6232d66752977ca92032f56667213579a7962143d17a402204f4e644930428ef/22.jpg" data-mid="156588743" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6232d66752977ca92032f56667213579a7962143d17a402204f4e644930428ef/22.jpg" /><img width="2835" height="3780" width_o="2835" height_o="3780" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/66afa9ba6091dd5b2578b25a7a7a791f81fc12cd865d17899e4e383b559c8897/14.jpg" data-mid="156588744" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/66afa9ba6091dd5b2578b25a7a7a791f81fc12cd865d17899e4e383b559c8897/14.jpg" /><img width="2835" height="2126" width_o="2835" height_o="2126" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0c46cf452c7dbae6416e4a44e21c321edb1b205ebff8deb5c7f93c3f850a89c5/13.jpg" data-mid="156588745" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0c46cf452c7dbae6416e4a44e21c321edb1b205ebff8deb5c7f93c3f850a89c5/13.jpg" /><img width="2835" height="3780" width_o="2835" height_o="3780" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1c848076353ef1673ac22ab93e0cbe557fa18e0ef8238a7aedb7c7ff155abbc9/11.jpg" data-mid="156588746" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1c848076353ef1673ac22ab93e0cbe557fa18e0ef8238a7aedb7c7ff155abbc9/11.jpg" /><img width="3402" height="4535" width_o="3402" height_o="4535" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f73dc33a69091b871fc2e7a1a5c96e9060cf91ff835d96c7cdda0b26bd84fd5/15-small.jpg" data-mid="156588747" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6f73dc33a69091b871fc2e7a1a5c96e9060cf91ff835d96c7cdda0b26bd84fd5/15-small.jpg" /><img width="6192" height="8256" width_o="6192" height_o="8256" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6d24c6374515ca41bd3a5553a13deacfe29f05097480b3ef19d3e5324b7f1735/17-small.jpg" data-mid="156588748" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6d24c6374515ca41bd3a5553a13deacfe29f05097480b3ef19d3e5324b7f1735/17-small.jpg" /><img width="4000" height="5333" width_o="4000" height_o="5333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/01d3516f68658f222ccabebcaaf712bf5b47c0ee875e6828e68ff81e07927308/30-small.jpg" data-mid="156588749" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/01d3516f68658f222ccabebcaaf712bf5b47c0ee875e6828e68ff81e07927308/30-small.jpg" /> <img width="4252" height="5669" width_o="4252" height_o="5669" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e4140ec3bb3283164ab819b4d70b8cc8221abf0aee02195c0df69df86388bf16/05.jpg" data-mid="157340552" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e4140ec3bb3283164ab819b4d70b8cc8221abf0aee02195c0df69df86388bf16/05.jpg" /> <img width="5902" height="7869" width_o="5902" height_o="7869" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/48248230109085f1a7de5799f21f5de1be08da9868b124b81a925d804b67f7e9/bench.jpg" data-mid="157340602" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/48248230109085f1a7de5799f21f5de1be08da9868b124b81a925d804b67f7e9/bench.jpg" /> <img width="6045" height="8060" width_o="6045" height_o="8060" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e6fcf0c1cfa5b72013068841c9271cc837394ac75ca25f2e8a4efce644bf59d/07.jpg" data-mid="157340553" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4e6fcf0c1cfa5b72013068841c9271cc837394ac75ca25f2e8a4efce644bf59d/07.jpg" /> Soon (CCS) https://catfontoura.com/Soon-CCS Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:52:14 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/Soon-CCS S O O N &nbsp;&nbsp; (Cosmic Cross Stich) <img width="4848" height="3866" width_o="4848" height_o="3866" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/851398d8d3916168bfb94db730788d97d3cd83d01d1fbecb4507c6c9dd5fb8e1/ccs-final-copy.jpg" data-mid="157332288" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/851398d8d3916168bfb94db730788d97d3cd83d01d1fbecb4507c6c9dd5fb8e1/ccs-final-copy.jpg" />'Stitching togetherdark entities,desert seasastral windsstitch by stitchfree handself-regulationstitch by stitchgold coinsbronze platesand dustpeeling away imaginary mineralsstitch by stitchuncoveringmystery particlesstitch by stitchsplit pregnant grainsburst out firestitch by stitch.' Writing https://catfontoura.com/Writing Sat, 29 Oct 2022 17:59:05 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/Writing <img width="8256" height="6192" width_o="8256" height_o="6192" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f4a78b0673e9688eeb3d8fc865fa7787bdbff04d28f6f4a5cfab32f9fe8363b/01.jpg" data-mid="157347640" border="0" alt="FILHA DE CARVAO E OURO NEGRO (portugues)" data-caption="FILHA DE CARVAO E OURO NEGRO (portugues)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f4a78b0673e9688eeb3d8fc865fa7787bdbff04d28f6f4a5cfab32f9fe8363b/01.jpg" /> <img width="640" height="640" width_o="640" height_o="640" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb6716968adc224fb4c02a1933d26e2dae9f571f2474aeb418a90d1de572970b/297742801_1021846891847791_2102360203498857029_n.jpg" data-mid="157347650" border="0" alt="HOW DO I EXPRESS THE DARKNESS?" data-caption="HOW DO I EXPRESS THE DARKNESS?" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/fb6716968adc224fb4c02a1933d26e2dae9f571f2474aeb418a90d1de572970b/297742801_1021846891847791_2102360203498857029_n.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1079" width_o="1440" height_o="1079" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5bc545d6a500eac9271e758a758f36b1b6bfac4f0575976e95d010fc863ab60b/300579212_2858041641164954_3475499750525506214_n.jpg" data-mid="157347646" border="0" alt="URGENT AUTOBIOGRAPHIES" data-caption="URGENT AUTOBIOGRAPHIES" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5bc545d6a500eac9271e758a758f36b1b6bfac4f0575976e95d010fc863ab60b/300579212_2858041641164954_3475499750525506214_n.jpg" /> <img width="5315" height="3986" width_o="5315" height_o="3986" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aa19069e9c370f9842ad13f4a9d8f2e9f96b2e05301712a51017aeee7d11b828/tree-alive.jpg" data-mid="157351238" border="0" alt="REGENERATIVE CREATIVITY" data-caption="REGENERATIVE CREATIVITY" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aa19069e9c370f9842ad13f4a9d8f2e9f96b2e05301712a51017aeee7d11b828/tree-alive.jpg" /> <img width="1400" height="1400" width_o="1400" height_o="1400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d466d90c286250340d7ab6d713e0141eea05a8bd619283d7cd14d4b0404ee7b/cinchona-officinalis_website.jpg" data-mid="157369722" border="0" alt="ECOLOGICAL REPARATIONS" data-caption="ECOLOGICAL REPARATIONS" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8d466d90c286250340d7ab6d713e0141eea05a8bd619283d7cd14d4b0404ee7b/cinchona-officinalis_website.jpg" /> About https://catfontoura.com/About Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:27:09 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/About Catarina Fontoura is an artist, educator and writer. She has submitted her PhD thesis in History of Photography from Birkbeck, University of London, specialising in visual histories of science. Catarina was the recipient of a Collaborative Doctoral Award between Birkbeck and the Royal Society in London, where she studied expeditionary photographic archives. The results of her doctoral investigation have been presented in the third Photographies Journal International Conference in 2022. Catarina’s artistic practice explores the relation between art, science, spirituality, story-telling and ecology. She is particularly interested in reconfiguring the land into entangled systems and stories, embedding human beings into non-human narratives and entities. Her work has been exhibited in Germany, USA, Mexico, UK and Portugal. Catarina was a nominee for the Magnum Graduate award in 2015. Her work has been published in several independent art publications and online platforms, such as AP, Der Grief, Paper Journal, The Lost Prairie and Phases Magazine. Recent exhibitions include the collective show ‘The colour of there seen from here, the colour of where you are not’, in Vital Spaces, New Mexico US and 'In Progress' at the Centre for Contemporary Art and Gallery in Augsburg, Germany.&nbsp; Her latest research focuses on the relationship between autobiography, creative practice and ecology and her book chapter ‘Urgent Autobiographies: Lived Experiences of Ecology in Photographic Practice’ will be published in early 2023 by IGI Publishers, USA. Originally from Portugal, she lives and works in West Cornwall, UK.catarinafontoura (at ) gmail.com &nbsp;@catarinafontoura&nbsp;︎&nbsp; <img width="1594" height="1060" width_o="1594" height_o="1060" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e1080dbe9504fbbc653726bbc36bfd1ae5c2cf4862e2b871115fdb684e398ef/Screenshot-2022-10-29-at-17.08.20.png" data-mid="157347177" border="0" alt="Photograph taken at The Independent AIR 2018" data-caption="Photograph taken at The Independent AIR 2018" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e1080dbe9504fbbc653726bbc36bfd1ae5c2cf4862e2b871115fdb684e398ef/Screenshot-2022-10-29-at-17.08.20.png" />S E L E C T E D&nbsp; E X H I B I T I O N S &nbsp;&nbsp; 2022 ‘The colour of there seen from here, the colour of where you are not’, Vital Spaces, Santa Fe, New Mexico February 2022. 2017 Galleri Box, Summer Art Fair, Göteborg, Sweden. 2015 Carlisle Photo Festival, Photobook Dummy Exhibition, UK 2015 Photoplace Gallery, Middlebury, Vermont, ‘Things with Wings’, US 2014 Encontros da Imagem, Photobook dummy exhibition, Braga, Portugal 2014 The Independent AIR exhibition, Silkeborg, Denmark 2014 Wish You Were Here, Exhibition Featuring work of emergent photographers Ffotogallery, Penarth, Cardiff UK 2014, Exhibition ‘A Process’, Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus in Augsburg, Germany 2013 Edges, MA Graduate Show, Ffotogallery, Penarth, Cardiff UK 2012 Invocations, Solo Show, Ffloc Gallery curated by Helen Sear, Newport, UK 2012 Unseen Bristol, Parlour Showroom, Bristol UK&nbsp; 2012 100 Years of Photography at Newport, University of Wales, Newport, UK 2011 Invocations Work in Progress, Fauna &amp; Flora Gallery, Newport, UK 2010 2011 BA Graduate Show, “I am late”, Museu da Vila Velha, Vila Real, Portugal 2009 2010 Revelaciones, Biblioteca del Cabañal, Valencia, España 2008 FotoGuadalajara, UDG Gallery, Guadajara, Mexico &nbsp; R E C E N T&nbsp; &nbsp;P U B L I C A T I O N S ‘Urgent Autobiographies: Lived Experiences of Ecology in Photographic Practice’ in 'Handbook of Research on the Relationship Between Autobiographical Memory and Photography', Ed. Mark Ingham, Nela Millic, Vasileios Kantas, Sara Andersdotter and Paul Lowe. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global. January 2023. ‘Wild Home: Boundaries and borders between domestic and wild in expeditionary photography in the twentieth century’ in Photographies Journal International Conference, San Antonio Texas, US. September 2022. Submitted for Publication. ‘Ecological Reparations: Medicinal Trees, Colonization and the Archive’ in ‘Decolonizing Decarbonization Zine’, Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD), December 2022. Submitted for Publication. ‘Filha de Carvão e Ouro Negro’ (Daughter of Coal and Black Gold: Stories of Extractivism and Love) in Vento e Agua Journal, Portugal, Issue 35 May 2022 P R E S S&nbsp; European Prospects: Visual Explorations in an Undiscovered Continent, May 2014 Source, Graduate selection, October 2014 Der Grief Book ‘A Progress’ July 2014 Antennae, The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture The Latent Image, USA March 2014 Phases Magazine, June 2014 Paper Journal Magazine, June 2014 Ap Magazine, Selected Photograph from ‘Invocations’, May 2013 Invocations featured in Gimnasio Magazine, Mexico September 2012 How can I express the darkness https://catfontoura.com/How-can-I-express-the-darkness Sat, 29 Oct 2022 18:05:08 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/How-can-I-express-the-darkness H O W&nbsp; &nbsp;C A N&nbsp; &nbsp;I&nbsp; &nbsp;E X P R E S S&nbsp; &nbsp; T H E&nbsp; &nbsp;D A R K N E S S ?&nbsp; Source Photography Writing Competition Entry 2022 On the 30th of June of 1927 Virginia Woolf wrote down, in her diary, a question which has reverberated through as many human generations as there has been: ‘How can I express the darkness?’ Thirteen years earlier, in December of 1915, from the front line of WW1 in Russia, a Jewish German physicist, Karl Schwarzschild – his name meaning ‘black shield’ or ‘black sign’– stumbled upon a dark monster when coming up with the first exact solution to the General Theory of Relativity. When too much mass was compressed into a small area, space would tear apart instead of bending, becoming infinitely curved, turning on itself, and collapsing. Schwarzschild saw something without observing it. To humans, that is as rare of a thing as anyone can imagine. Before the war, Schwarzschild’s passion for celestial mechanics led him to work with photographic glass plates, capturing light rays that have travelled for thousands of light years, effectively photographing the past, bending indexicality, making the impossible, possible. What many have said of photography, calling it a death mask turns stale: these plates are an expression of inconceivable possibility. Effectively, they are the universe seeing itself from the future. A fire at once burning, and extinguished. It is not a death mask, but a mirror reflecting a living fossil.&nbsp; Light-radiating, fire-dancing cold stone. <img width="1386" height="1118" width_o="1386" height_o="1118" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f9d9eb2289b28b165fe55a2d1375c0bf8da834c720265a712b57147f95ad0d6c/Screenshot-2022-10-29-at-20.01.20.png" data-mid="157349429" border="0" data-scale="67" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f9d9eb2289b28b165fe55a2d1375c0bf8da834c720265a712b57147f95ad0d6c/Screenshot-2022-10-29-at-20.01.20.png" /> Plate exposed by Karl Schwarzschild 4th October 1911 APPLAUSE (Archive of Photographic Plates for Astronomical USE) Because human beings are intensely visual creatures, our languages and expressions are visual. We use visual metaphors and abstractions to describe the world around us and the worlds within us.&nbsp; Precisely because of this, Schwarzschild himself did not believe the monster he saw, and discarded it as a metaphysical anomaly, a dreadful mistake, an imaginary beast. In a letter to his wife, after discovering this anomaly, Schwarzschild wrote: “I don’t know how to name it or definite it, but it has an irrepressible force and darkens all my thoughts. It is a void without form of dimension, a shadow I can’t see, but one that I can feel with the entirety of my soul.” He said that the true horror of this region in space where gravity is so strong, nothing can escape from it, destroying anything that comes close enough, was that it is fundamentally unknowable, because it can’t be seen.&nbsp; Emits no light, reflects no light. The darkness. Eighty years later, a global network of eight radio telescopes collaboratively produced the first photograph of a supermassive black hole. &nbsp; Six and half billion suns collapsed into a pinpoint. The photograph itself is unremarkable, a donut like halo of hazy orange light in a semi symmetrical shape, surrounded by darkness, but not the same darkness that we find where our eyes converge, the centre of the circle. Two kinds of darkness, recognising each other. But something else wants to happen here. Something that interrupts that single story of forward, of progress. Something that doesn’t solve paradoxes, but leans into them. From its first mathematical sight to the quality of its darkness, this giant, was officially named by Kimura, a Hawaiian language professor, of Powehi - Embelished dark source of unending creation – twisting this monster inside out, into a beautiful and busy creator. Darkness discovered and expressed, now dispelled, not by the light of science, but by living story, and the thing about stories is that you don’t need eyes to tell one, you need a mouth. “How can I express the darkness?” becomes a question about visuality and its limits, about abstracts worlds, made from inscriptions, invisible to us because we can see. The paradox is that to express something you must first discover it, shine a light on it, see it, observe it, but by shining a light on darkness you dispel it, make it disappear. So, you need to go into the dark and believe what you see without the use of your eyes. This is the work of artists.&nbsp; Virginia Woof continues: ‘All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated: and the one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being one-self, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others.’ <img width="1388" height="914" width_o="1388" height_o="914" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b067e02362c07192c9f8e0b86c2c89d1438b91275bdb16da4504f455b55051ca/Screenshot-2022-10-29-at-20.00.23.png" data-mid="157349288" border="0" data-scale="66" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b067e02362c07192c9f8e0b86c2c89d1438b91275bdb16da4504f455b55051ca/Screenshot-2022-10-29-at-20.00.23.png" /> Sagittarius A* Black Hole at the centre of the Milky Way Observations in April 2017 / Completed in May 2019 ETH Collaboration Figure References: Figure 1: APPLAUSE www.plate-archive.org(Assessed 18th July 2022) Figure 2: EHT https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/astronomers-reveal-first-image-black-hole-heart-our-galaxy&nbsp; (Assessed 18th July 2022) References and Bibliography: Indrany Suhendro. “Biography of Karl Schwarzschild:”. The Abraham Zelmonov Journal, Vol. 1, 2008. Hawking, Stephen. Black Holes: BBC Reith Lectures.London: Batam, 2016. Labatut, Benjamin. When we cease to understand the world.London: Pushkin Press, 2021. Sobel, Dava. Glass Universe: The Hidden History of the Women Who Took the Measure of the Stars, London: Forth Estate, 2017. Woolf, Virginia. A Writers Diary. London: Houghton Mifflin Hardcourt, 2003. Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. London: Hogarth Press, 1927. Newspaper articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/science/powehi-black-hole.html Urgent Autobiographies https://catfontoura.com/Urgent-Autobiographies Sat, 29 Oct 2022 19:17:43 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/Urgent-Autobiographies U R G E N T&nbsp; &nbsp;A U T O B I O G R A P H I E S&nbsp; :&nbsp; L I V E D&nbsp; &nbsp;E X P E R I E N C E S&nbsp; &nbsp;O F&nbsp; &nbsp;E C O L O G Y&nbsp; &nbsp;I N&nbsp; P H O T O G R A P H I C&nbsp; &nbsp;P R A C T I C E&nbsp; in 'Contemporary Ideas on the Relationship Between Autobiographical Memory and Photography' Published in 2023 by I.G.I Publishers&nbsp;- Excerpt -&nbsp; ‘Human beings did not invent stories. We arrived inside of them.’[1] Sophie Strand ‘All there is, whilst things perpetually fall apart, is the possibility of acting from where we are’[2] Vanessa Machado Lineage, ancestry, inherited or past community networks, in other words, human bonds, are an important part of the ecology of the species to which we belong, albeit not a central one. Situating ourselves in our own life stories as well as in larger human stories enables us to consider the processes of life and death that ultimately, we are. Once we can play with the concertina of our individual human stories, and those of our recent ancestors, we start stumbling upon non-human ecologies so deep and so involved in our own autobiographies, as what we call ‘the self’. Ecological storytelling asks us to consider that we, individual human beings, don’t have one single story, but thousands, sporulating and happening at the same time and through cycles, irreversibly woven into the processes of other living beings, most of the time in ways which can’t be made fully visible. It seems that because they cannot be made fully visible, most human beings I know see no point in engaging with them, in imagining them and playing with them and witnessing them. How can you witness, honour something invisible? That sounds just too woo for most of us. ‘Because science’ someone held on a mug filled with coffee in a zoom conference last year. Either, or, all or nothing. This chapter invites readers, students, creative humans to use their creative practices and brains to activate the power of ‘and’: there is me and…what else is there? This exercise locates human bodies in more than human ecologies. Ecological autobiographies and lineage stories are thus an essential part of the productive collapse of the ways of thinking and living which evidently are producing violent changes in our planet and in our own selves. As Ailton Krenak puts it ‘If people are not attached / bonded to their ancestral memory, with the references that sustain identity, they will become insane, in this insane world we share’.[3] One could argue that within all the human lineages currently in existence we can find stories of extractivism, and its close relatives, white supremacy, and the patriarchy. They can be found in a prism of perspectives and experiences, entangled in the lives of our most recent ancestors, as well as in our own. Positioning our autobiographies within these complex violent systems with curiosity allows us to approach the conditions, limits, and the possibilities of our concrete actions towards social and ecological change. This way, in our new autobiographies, we can see ourselves as descents, accomplices, casualties of the abject events of the world and simultaneously resourceful and capable of emergent action We begin perceiving ourselves as profoundly embedded in wide ecologies / social systems and individual beings in our own right. As Alexis argues complicity and compromise are a starting point for action.[4] This chapter draws upon eco-philosophy and visual studies literature, alongside the autobiographical and photographic work of the participants of the Global Network Photographies online seminar entitled ‘Urgent Stories’, the first iteration of which happened in November 2021 and which I have designed and facilitated. The participants were invited to read and discuss literature, to share autobiographical stories of ecology and entanglement, to make work drawing from these stories and experiences. They were also invited to reflect upon how the act of remembering, imagining, shaping, and creating autobiographies as embedded beings within deep ecologies and we all found that this has a profound impact in reframing the way we think about our changing environments. Memory takes here an important role, allowing individuals to make sense of past events and re-think them, as complex, multidimensional and subjective lines of narrative which keep those events alive and useful to us in present day. Photographs in family archives and albums, photographic diaries, recorded oral stream of consciousness, interviews with family members and oral storytelling in a virtual space were some of tools used by participants to activate memory in a first instance. These improvised methodologies lead them to the use of photographic practice to fabricate new autobiographies, framed and conceived through a somewhat paradoxical lens of both ecological decentring and of rooting of the self within somatic experience, lineage, territory. [1] Strand, Sophie, 2021 Ecologial Storytelling – Borrowed Time In Conversation [online] Available at: &lt;https://borrowed-time.info/in-conversation-with-sophie-strand/ [Accessed 17 January 2022]. [2] Machado de Oliveira, V., 2021. Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. North Atlantic Books. [3] Krenak, A., 2020. Ideas to Postpone de End of the World. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, p.4 [4] Shotwell, A., 2016. Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. Regenerative Creativity https://catfontoura.com/Regenerative-Creativity Sat, 29 Oct 2022 19:28:50 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/Regenerative-Creativity R E G E N E R A T I V E&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;C R E A T I V I T Y&nbsp; &nbsp;( work in progress)&nbsp; Coming soon..... Reparations https://catfontoura.com/Reparations Sun, 30 Oct 2022 05:42:02 +0000 Catarina Fontoura https://catfontoura.com/Reparations E C O L O G I C A L&nbsp; &nbsp; R E P A R AT I O N S&nbsp; CHEAD Decolonizing Decarbonization Zine&nbsp; OUT in December 2022 (Excerpt)&nbsp; ‘As an accidental historian of science and postcolonialism[1]I want to pass on a very important message for the decolonizing of decarbonization: Euro-centric imperialism, land appropriation, ecological enslavement of African people and dominion, abuse and genocide of indigenous people are historically entangled and directly linked to current levels of forestation in the Global South and to levels of carbon in the atmosphere today. The problem of (de) forestation and (de) carbonisation is not one of individual countries, as borders are laid out today. It is the response-ability of oppressor societies to offer respectful reparations for these ecological histories, as part of decarbonisation. <img width="1400" height="2000" width_o="1400" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f72840cb7d31570dfc453fd8740a97e257d6c7067ae1f0c276491fbd01478e5/cinchona-officinalis_03.jpeg" data-mid="157373901" border="0" alt="&lsquo;Chinchona Officinalis&rsquo;, collected by C.R Markham, India 1910 Kew Gardens Herbarium &copy; copyright of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew." data-caption="‘Chinchona Officinalis’, collected by C.R Markham, India 1910 Kew Gardens Herbarium © copyright of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f72840cb7d31570dfc453fd8740a97e257d6c7067ae1f0c276491fbd01478e5/cinchona-officinalis_03.jpeg" /> [1] With a background in Fine Arts, I was awarded a AHRC scholarship in 2014 to undertake a collaborative doctoral award with Birkbeck, University of London and the Royal Society to study visual cultures and histories of expeditionary science to the tropics in the twentieth century, coming a marginal and oftentimes unwilling historian of -Western- science.