W.M. Hunt

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Cássio Vasconcellos lives and works in Brazil but we met at a portfolio review.  He had a oversized book of dazzling images which were enormous photographic compositions of large groupings of airplanes, boats, buildings and people (mostly in color but, in this case, what I saw, in black and white)  Technically the work seemed flawless, huge considerations of ground scapes seen from above, with apparently tens of thousands of digital images combined.   

But it was his imagination that captured my attention, that he could see these images in his  mind’s eye and then realize them, fulfill them on the computer.

He had laid out a print of his “É Nóis!” on the floor  There were actually three prints including the above and two which zoom in closer and closer to reveal the faces in the crowds of people.  

The original seemed very large, leaving one as if they’re going to be swallowed up.  In size it seemed close to 3 meters/10 feet wide (1 1/2 meters by 1 3/4 meters wide).  Formidable. 

Acquiring it and trying to install it in one’s re sidence seemed madness but I entertained it.  The experience of the print was exhilarating, a one of a kind moment. 

“E Nois” references directly or indirectly Arthur Siegel’s classic “The Right of Assembly”, 1939 series of “people-scapes”, photographs of United Automobile Workers striking against Chryslers Motors

The Siegel is, in fact, a stylish piece of reportage that has had artistic  life as an abstraction.  The Vasconcellas is a construction but, in its various iterations, reveals the literal face of the crowd.  The same and different.

©2021

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