Artist Todi Kong de Sousa presented her solo exhibition "The Dance of Life" in April in the Casa Garden's main gallery, organised by the Orient Foundation
The exhibition features 21 works by the artist including 16 sculptures and five paintings. And what makes the paintings particularly special is that Todi uses some of the materials on canvas that she usually uses to make her sculptures.
"This is not the first time I have ventured into painting, as I participated in a collective exhibition promoted by the painter and teacher Mio Pang Fei a few years ago as part of my study at the Polytechnic, but it was a small work. After all these years, I am now back with five paintings in which I use the materials from my sculptures", he says, adding that sculpture is something "more spontaneous" when he thinks about art, although he likes painting a lot.
The new exhibition "focuses essentially on the theme of life as a dance", explains the Orient Foundation in a press release. "Not only of human lives themselves and their emotions, but also of this planet where we live and which is in constant movement. The artist explores textures, mixtures of materials and compositions. The fabrics inspire her with their malleability and lightness during the creation of the pieces and in the end they become rigid, as if a movement is suspended in time".
The artist explains that the title for the exhibition came naturally.
"I think of life as a dance. We dance, with sacrifice, until we achieve success and then, with advancing age, the energy fades and life ends."
Todi’s first exhibition "Metamorphosis" was also shown at the Orient Foundation's Casa Garden in 2015. She notes that she usually makes an offer to galleries and art spaces when she has enough pieces to display. "It takes me some time to make the pieces, which are unique," she admits.
Born in Mozambique, Custódia (Todi) Kong de Sousa lived in Portugal for 10 years before settling in Macau in 1986. She explains that her art is a mixture of influences from Africa, the West and the East.
Previously a civil engineer, Todi only seriously embraced her artistic career after the age of 50, and she believes that her previous work taught her some skills that are advantages to her current artistic pursuits.
"Planning," Todi emphasises. "There is a very important component that, I think, engineering gave me which is planning. Because I work with very special materials, I need to plan every stage of creation. Because if I don't, the piece won't come out the way it should", she says.
