Fernanda Gomes, Sem Título (Untitled), 2004, wood, ca. 34×67 x 71”. All Gomes images courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina.

Fernanda Gomes is one of the most interesting artists of my generation. We have been in many shows together over the last 20 years, but her work is completely different from mine. Gomes makes art with all kinds of leftover materials: everyday objects, old furniture (old not in the sense of antique, but polished by time), glasses, little mirrors, little magnets, many different kinds of string, hair, cigarette ends, coins, branches, newspapers, letters, words—as she says in this interview, “things.” If she is using a product with a design or logo on its surface, she certainly will take it off, bringing the object back to its own structure, to its identity—unless there is some subtle image or text on it that might match some poetic point and add some context to her “thing.” Sometimes there is no change to the object, no interference, nothing like another object added to it, but there is a relation from it, to the context of the environment she creates in the studio or the gallery. Her approach is pretty open, but rigorous. Gomes has been very active with exhibitions worldwide, in museums and galleries and in biennials.

The interview was conducted over five days this fall, by email.

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Issue 102 Winter 2008