"For me smoking is a lovely and fantastic solitary activity. If those around are not feeling uncomfortable with the situation, it is just the most fantastic company. It helps me to think, it helps me to concentrate,” says Carlos Marreiros, one of Macau’s most prolific artists and cultural mentors.
“I believe it was Johnny Guitar who stated, a long time ago, that it was a pleasure to think about his millions of ideas and places he had travelled to whilst smoking.”
The Macanese architect is under no illusion of the risks involved, and is not advocating for its widespread use, but does believe that there is an unbalanced attitude towards those who enjoy smoking.
“We all know that it is not good for our health, but there are many things like that on earth, not just smoking, and I am talking about smoking things like cigarettes, cigars and pipes, I am not talking about drugs.”
It is clear that smoking, in all its guises, has been entertained by the artist from all angles – most likely with a cigarette in hand. In 2011, his exhibition Tobacco Wars featured sketches and paintings on old account books, interweaving cigarettes, cats, knights, Papal symbols and Chinese seals as daily trivial consumption. The artworks touch on the history of tobacco and highlight the tricky relationship every smoker has with cigarettes: the feeling of comfort and company, the ritual; and on the other hand, cigarettes as drugs, a health hazard and ever so difficult to let go of.
“It is a pleasure, it does not destroy families or society, a normal smoker is quite acceptable. Nowadays there are too many constraints against smokers, they are seen as criminals and I don’t think this point of view is correct because we are not destroying the environment, or people’s lives.”
“I can accept that smokers can be candidates for certain diseases, but then non-smokers who breathe pollution, scientifically proven to be so bad for our health, what about that? I’m not defending that smoking is good, but it is not as destructive as air pollution.”
“As an architect I always practice environmental architecture, I am very concerned about these issues, but to a proportionate degree. For instance, in Macau you can’t smoke in any restaurants, it is very radical. The law should provide for a space reserved for smokers with strong ventilation in place. In an equal society, smokers should be afforded the respect extended to everybody.”
“Prepare new generations not to smoke, but give the opportunity to smokers like me, and millions around the world to have a transition period, and if we are seen as sick people, give us therapy, not penalties,” he reflects.
There is a long list of renowned people who were smokers, and whose work, theories and output has made the world a richer place, and the 2013 Macau representative at the Venice Biennale struggles to understand how their smoking habits can categorize them as offenders.
“So many smokers have contributed to mankind in terms of literature, cinema, art, politics, and also science and medicine – how many Nobel Prize winners in medicine and doctors are and were smokers?! Smokers have contributed a lot to mankind, being considered criminals is not fair.”
For Marreiros, there is no particular procedure or ceremony around the act of smoking, it is simply as natural as breathing.
“I smoke from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed. Before I used to smoke much more, but over the last few years I have smoked less. The ritual is so simple and so natural, it’s like drinking water or drinking coffee. I smoke at home, when I’m working, at the office and with my friends, as long as no one is bothered by it. I don’t smoke when there are children or pregnant women are around, I’m very respectful.”
It is easy to see how the artist made a whole body of artwork around the act of smoking; it is something that has been on his mind over the course of his life.
“When I was a teenager there were three brands I liked, Lucky Strike, Viceroy and Camel; ‘I would walk a mile for a Camel!’ These three were my brands of preference when I was young. This was during my experimental phase.”
Admiring the poise of screen legends with a cigarette in hand is something many have done, and the poet is no exception.
“There are so many icons of black and white cinema, women, looking so elegant, from angelic Audrey Hepburn to a more sophisticated Lauren Bacall – they are so beautiful in their smoking posture, so elegant and attractive.”
Of all the different types of smoking, cigarettes are the one the artist remains loyal to.
“People who smoke cigars don’t inhale, they just have fun in the mouth and the nose, for me this in not fun enough. Fun enough is to feel the blessing from above, that hot blessing through our lungs, this is really a pleasure.”
“I’ve tried so many cigarettes, I like to have hard cigarettes. I inhale the smoke of the cigarette, that feeling of – as Johnny Cash says – hot air entering our lungs is like a kiss from heaven.”
