Involuntary Landscapes interprets artist Hugo Teixeira’s attempts to piece together a historical and cultural consciousness lost when his family emigrated from Portugal and settled in California in the 1970’s. The found photos of an anonymous family in pre-revolutionary Portugal recall the characters and settings of his own family’s stories and evoke recollections of the past. He juxtaposes these with deliberately crafted landscape photos from his travels in the California chaparral and the Portuguese montado. Together, these images form unique artworks which interpret the past through the lens of the present to close the distance between the artist and the distant stories of his family.
“I fuse the photographs using a montage process reminiscent of 19th century landscape photographers who combined unrelated photos of land and sky to create harmonious compositions not achievable in a single exposure,” explains Hugo. “The images presented here distill 14,664 compositions to just a few evocative examples. The technique reflects the trials and errors of learning to navigate two cultures without much guidance, but ultimately learning to feel at home in a blend of both.”
Hugo presents the images in groups of several constellations in the gallery, inviting visitors to view them as they might do if they were walking through the hallway in a family member’s home.
“The vintage frames were selected to evoke the feeling of photos displayed in a home rather than a gallery setting. They remind me of the random collection of images and frames that were displayed in my own parents’ and grandparents’ homes.”
Teixeira grew up in the Luso-American community in San Jose, California. A linguist by training, he studied photography at San Jose State University and Lisbon’s Escola Técnica de Imagem e Comunicação, and graduated from the MFA in the Photography and Related Media program at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2020. His artwork relies on photography, common materials, advanced technical skillsets and memory to create contemporary conceptual images and sculptures.
Hugo’s work has been recognized and awarded by the OFF Bratislava Festival (2022 Lee Award), the Silver Eye Center for Photography (2020 Silver List), Photolucida (2020 Critical Mass finalist), Soho Photo Gallery (2020 National Competition), FotoFika (2020 All Stars Project), among others. As an artist and teacher, Teixeira has exhibited work in the United States, Europe, and the Macau.
Involuntary Landscapes • Photography Exhibition by Hugo Teixeira | February 4 to March 4 | 14:00-19:00 Monday to Saturday
@ Creative Macau | G/F Macau Cultural Centre Building | Xian Xing Hai Avenue | Free Admission
