In the oldest print runs, which form part of the collections of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Centro de Arte Moderna and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, this image has the title Coisas do Vidro [Things of Glass]. However, in a more recent print for the Berardo Collection, Lemos gave it the title Coisas da Água [Things of Water].

Neither of the two titles appears to shed any light on the image itself. However, with more careful analysis and a conversation with the artist at the time (2003), both titles turned out to be important in decoding the genesis of this work. Contrary to what one might think, it does not correspond to a canvas on an easel, but to a glass plate on which Fernando Lemos worked both sides, with collages and dripping water into paint, causing it to expand into spontaneous patches.

The inclusion of an easel gives a connotation of painting to Lemos’s intervention, thus combining in the work the sensitivity of the visual artist and the language of photography as a record.

José Oliveira
2022