Our chains

From the duplicated, hybrid bodies of the grids in the drawings, reliefs, and cut-outs, a new representation would emerge in the early 1970s: ‘ropes’ or ‘chains’. At first they spiral, with spaces opening in on themselves, like black holes (or black bodies), manifesting themselves in heads, torsos, phalluses, and other figures bound in ropes. In the work The chained man or Our chains, a male body emerges from the blackness, cocooned in ropes. The body is painted right up to the limits of the sheet of paper itself, a second space of confinement. A year later, Escada would paint a body imprisoned behind metal bars: the disciplinary grid. This work would represent a paroxysm of this state of oppression, but at the same time a full awareness of the oppressed body-subject, i.e. the body as an identitarian representation and construction.

[fcg_custom_gallery order_1=”1″ image_1=”159369″ title_1=”José Escada (1934-1980)” description_1=”Untitled, 1973
Indian ink on paper
39 x 52.5 cm
Adelino Simões collection” order_2=”2″ image_2=”159375″ title_2=”José Escada (1934-1980)” description_2=”Homage to Messiaen, 8-12- 1976
Crayon, felt tip pen, graphite and collage on paper
16.8 x 10.5 cm. Carmo Sousa Lima collection” order_3=”3″ image_3=”159371″ title_3=”José Escada (1934-1980)” description_3=”Untitled, 1977
Graphite on paper
22 x 15.5 cm
Private collection” order_4=”4″ image_4=”159373″ title_4=”José Escada (1934-1980)” description_4=”Tragic-maritime History, 1971
Indian ink and gouache on paper
49.9 x 34.5
Private collection” order_5=”5″ image_5=”159379″ title_5=”José Escada (1934-1980)” description_5=”The chained man or Our chains, 1972
Gouache on paper
42.2 x 29.1 cm
Maria Nobre Franco collection” order_6=”6″ image_6=”159377″ title_6=”José Escada (1934-1980)” description_6=”Untitled, 1973
Felt tip pen on paper
39 x 59 cm
Manuel de Brito collection”]