Since 1979, I have been developing artworks in which the paper is both the medium and the work. As Fernando de Azevedo wrote, I am “passioned about the fortune that mankind had a history”. With a long-term passion for Archeology, I started to approach the Pedra Escrita de Serrazes [Written Stone of Serrazes] by compressing humid cotton papers against the engraved stone. This resulted in sketches that sharply emphasized its most prominent points, as in a shadow theater. In search of a better expression, I carried that work on with thin rice paper that showed an acute sharpness but also a distinct fragility. I then moved to another phase, using pulp, cotton threads and other organical matters that were molded on the silicone cast of the stone, giving life to a group of works that I designated as Lithic exercises. This work belongs to a cycle that was part of the Portuguese representation at the Biennale of São Paulo, Brazil, in 1983.

* Azevedo, Fernando de, Untitled text. In David de Almeida, Exposição de pintura. Lisboa: Galeria 111, Outubro de 1989.

David de Almeida
18 de Agosto de 2010