Petra Fernandes - ECOS

Born in 1988, Portuguese with a mix of Angolan roots. Early on I realized that creating was more than a pleasure; it became a necessity.

My work reflects a deep connection with my origins and emotions; I have an incessant curiosity about the world, especially about people and their behaviors.

Self-taught. I explore identity, character, emotion. What lies beyond what the eyes see. The meaning, the feeling. The sensory perception of the real human.

For me, art is life. Because while we live we create and we don’t even notice it. Creating is not forcing an intention; it is being free. It is to live. And I live creating…

The work “Ecos” are replicas of senses and emotions that wear out. They torment. Almost a Hydra with several heads, where each reveals a terror and we have something different. An agony, a despair of existence and fear. That scream in the dark, muffled, that no one hears. The most audible silence, which hides a medieval, grotesque pain of a mind overwhelmed by information. It is consciousness trapped in you. And a body limited by fears and nerves that articulate a new dimension of suffering. The constant despair of wanting to act more, the body stalls and inhibits desire. The frustration of the being who feels capable and at the same time the greatest desolate monster of itself. The disbeliever who lives submerged in dreams that he will never realize, out of fear. Where living is surviving this condition. They are echoes of the existence of an anxious person.