A Sitting Nation began with a mind map about the significance of being a Brazilian woman. I soon realized the overwhelming sensation of duality, the literal meaning of an antonym. At the same time, there was so much I loved that there was also something causing me great angst. As I read deeper into my mind map, specific words started grabbing my attention, which brought me anguish, like hunger, emptiness, genocide, femicide, battle, and “cattle” (a common term used to describe Bolsonaro’s following). Yet words that brought me warmth like happiness, party, friends, and samba. The significance of being Brazilian is at your lowest while seldom losing hope and battling for a better day.
To better represent these negative feelings, I created an “ordenha,” or a one-legged milking tool, a well-known piece of equipment for Brazilian ranchers. A symbol of rurality, of sustenance, of the blue-collar, but also the “cattle.” This object connects people's hunger and our government’s blinded electoral group. A stool that does not need four legs for one to balance themselves with, but if you do not know how to maintain that equilibrium, you will soon fall to the ground. The stool is usually used in the milking pen, on top of cattle excrement, a dooming feeling of a collapsing nation.
The resin was chosen as the primary material of the stool due to its transparency and lavishness, not typically used in the corral. Historically there is a cable made out of aluminum to balance itself on the farmer’s waist; instead, indigenous people from the Amazon used a necklace to symbolize the devastation occurring in the rainforest due to cattle ranges.
They are placed inside the bench with different objects that represent Brazilian culture. These are rice-the daily sustenance of Brazilians, a burned Brazilian flag; a hat made out of straw-used during Festa Junina Holiday; coffee beans, a 1 Real coin; a chicken bone-now being sold to make stew since the price of meat is so high, fé-the evangelical symbol, wood-continuously being illegally sold to foreigners, a banner that says every one hour and 30 minutes a woman is killed in Brazil, Havaiana, Figa-afro-descendant good luck charm, Senhor do Bom Fim bracelet-a catholic good luck charm, a double helix-the ignorance of scientific facts, sprinkles, cachaça, condom-the way the foreigner objectifies the Brazilian woman, flower, sequin strand-Carnaval, and an image of Bolsonaro covering his eyes with a mask that has Genocide written on it.
The bench is 290 mm in diameter, 60 mm thick, 190 mm tall, and the “leg” is 70 mm wide. These measurements were carefully chosen to be uncomfortable to the user. The concept of the bench represents the discomfort of “sitting on” monumental national issues. The video portrays the day of a Brazilian proletariat.
The pink background represents the start of the project about being a Brazilian woman.
