The pieces in this series on the circus are like frames in a film sequence. Somewhere at the top of the circus tent, everything indicates that a balancing act is underway. At the same time, another act takes place on the ground: another circus performer balances a child on her head. This act, which is less impressive because of the lower risk involved, is ignored by those present, who instead watch the act taking place above by the (assumed) equilibrist with a mix of anticipation and fear. This fear is at times transferred to other subjects, such as the mother in the foreground, who is distracted from all the activity around her, probably more concerned with what is happening in her life, cradling her child while she apprehensively raises her left hand to her chin.

The drama of the scene, accented by the more individualised loneliness of the two female characters – the performer and the woman in the foreground – is especially emphasised by the marked modulation of the shaded space, by the vague presence of the fine outlines of the figures, which are given body by washes in dull colours. Mostly suspended in the shadows, contained by the dense black, progressively becoming vestigial, the figures fade away. The curved lines of the bodies function as diagonal forces in the composition, accentuating the sense of instability and suspense; of frailty and submission. In the lit area, the circus characters, obliterated by the intensity of the white, are also reduced to simple outlines, becoming equally vague in their presence with timid shadows at their feet, joining together in the erasure and enhancing the tension of the image in the expectation and anguish that is felt in the bodies and on the faces of the spectators, with their hands supporting their chins.

Emília Ferreira

March 2013