Coletivo Amarelo is constantly growing and we are proud to present another artist who will be part of the collective, Jerusa Simone. The Portuguese artist, who now lives in Zurich, has a unique look gathered throughout her life and expressed through her art. By trying to recreate memories and emotions, Jerusa's work dialogues with surrealism.
Meet Jerusa Simone, an artist who recreates moments and experiences through surrealism
Jerusa Simone's art is mainly based on her daily personal experiences, emotions and recurring memories. During her process, the artist often works from naive drawings that arise from abstract backgrounds devoid of a pre-existing idea. In this way, Jerusa embraces painting as an act based on spontaneous movements and intuitive choices.
This origin of art in the subconscious and the attempt to recreate memories is directly linked to surrealism, expressed through its creations. His objects take forms based on subtlety and informal lines, forming human figures, reproducing familiar visual signs, together with a certain strangeness.
In order to stimulate the viewer visually and intellectually, all of the artist's work consists of reconstructing the connection between symbols, meanings, colors and textures, regardless of the medium used.
Jerusa Simone is originally from the city of Porto, in Portugal, but today lives in Zurich, Switzerland. The artist graduated in plastic arts from the Porto Artistic School and the Accademia di Belli Arti di Roma.
In recent years, Jerusa has explored different supports of painting through video art. With that, she got the opportunity to exhibit internationally in different contexts and places, such as Portugal, Italy, Saudi Arabia, England, Greece, Spain, United States and, recently in her host country, Switzerland.
The Woman and Surrealism
This year, the Venice Biennale held its 59th edition and, for the first time in 127 years, exhibited mostly female artists. In this edition, the Bienal addressed the mysteries of the human subconscious and its surrealism from the perspective of female artists.
Curated by the Italian Cecília Alemani, the exhibition explored themes that orbit the imagination of different realities, the universe of dreams and new perceptions about what it means to be human. In addition, it linked the influence of technology in the creation of new beings and the rescue of our imagination as children.
Jerusa's work, in turn, is entirely linked to the theme of the exhibition. This relationship is mainly marked by the artist's attempt to revisit memories through painting. By carrying out this memory exercise, the artist creates strange scenarios, yet somewhat familiar to the viewer.
Accompanying this trend of women in surrealism, Jerusa Simone creates something surreal in the midst of the confusing and intense times we are living.
To welcome her to Coletivo Amarelo and unite her unique vision with ours, we conducted an interview with the artist. Read an excerpt from our conversation and learn a little more about Jerusa Simone, a woman who uses her experiences and surrealism to express her art.
Yellow Collective: About the painting “Memories of a future match”, the joke you make with the words is interesting: “memory” being something that refers to a past, of something that has not yet happened, that is in the future. There is a certain attempt to manipulate time, traffic… talk a little more about this work, what was the creation process behind it?
Jerusa Simone: Basically, that painting was done at a very specific moment of transition, I was in Italy, about to move to Switzerland. This feeling is very strange, but it was already known. An area that I already knew more or less that I was going to face. Dealing with the scene of the new and the old, this duality. The painting is divided into two parts: the upper part with elements related to the Italian column. This almost obese body, which is inspired by the work of Lucien Freud. I looked at that body, and I wanted to bring this idea of beauty and ugliness, and give space to women again, without hypersexualizing the female body, but bringing other bodies. I wanted to see myself represented. I always had a lot of problems with myself, so looking at Freud's paintings, I thought: "Wow, this is grotesque, but so beautiful". These marginalized bodies, almost confrontational, force the audience to look. And the body always has a red outline, and it's always in the corners, but always there. The position reflects this, this phase of change, of fear. It's a familiar place, but it's scary.
HERE: It has a dreamlike quality, that we wake up and the dream is very clear, and as time passes, the details of the dream fade away. And your work has this characteristic of memory that is a little blurry. What's it like to make a painting that reflects your present moment, and then years later, revisit that same painting and look back at those memories, a little fuzzy, with that dreamlike quality? Something changed?
Jerusa Simone: Looking at it now, I can feel all my motivations, I remember all the elements that I added, that I eliminated… and now, at this moment, I am where I wanted to be when I made this painting. I've been in Switzerland for two years now, but in the meantime, I've overcome my fear that was very present in this work. That element of putting your hand in the fire is something I use a lot, it's almost a self-portrait, I put myself in danger, but I can't help it. A self-sabotage, transitional scene, of leaving something behind.
HERE: This painting illustrates a personal transition event of yours, where you moved from one place to another and placed the elements that were present in that process. But even though this was a specific section of your life, I can look at it and see myself there in some way, maybe in some transition that I went through, but I do it through someone else's dream. Almost as if I had visited someone else's dream. Do you think this is part of female surrealism?
Jerusa Simone: I had to discover this small niche (feminine surrealism), which is this game that I play with various elements, this exchange of meanings of the elements that I use, and as time goes by and I accumulate new experiences, things are being erased and transforming. So my work makes this game, almost like a puzzle…
Exclusive works by Jerusa are available in our store, check it out!