Earthquakes Deep Under the Sea

Developed from the process first explored in All Paths, in which free-flowing drawings become the starting point for paintings, Earthquakes Deep Under the Sea follows the same intuitive approach. Across these works, forms and colours seem to emerge from a central point of contact. Here, a horizon line divides the painting in two: above it, shapes appear like islands; below, in a submerged realm invisible from the surface, forms, colours and textures proliferate.

One day, while looking towards the Cagarras Islands from Leblon beach in Rio de Janeiro, I recognised their silhouette in the curved red form at the top of the painting. This is a landscape deeply familiar to me: the backdrop to childhood holidays spent with my family. It is embedded in my emotional and visual vocabulary. Beneath this recognisable horizon, however, the painting reveals a complex inner world—a multitude of memories, emotions and unseen forces moving below the surface.

While reading Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore, I encountered a passage that resonated with my creative process and the meaning I found within these images:

“It’s like an earthquake deep under the sea. In an unseen world, a place where light doesn’t reach, in the realm of the unconscious. In other words, a major transformation is taking place. It reaches the surface, where it sets off a series of reactions and eventually takes form where we can see it with our own eyes.”

—Haruki Murakami, Killing Commendatore