Coming
From Water

Project developed by the artist Paulo Arraiano

Coming from water, all living forms where able to grow and survive, procreate and colonise this planet and transform it. This more-than-human hyper object is the primal element of life.

The conditions that obtained when life had not yet emerged from the oceans have not subsequently changed a great deal for the cells of the human body, bathed by the primordial wave which continues to flow in the arteries. Our blood in fact has a chemical composition analogous to that of the sea of our origins, from which the first living cells and the first multicellular beings derived the oxygen and the other elements necessary to life. With the evolution of more complex organisms, the problem of maintaining a maximum number of cells in contact with the liquid environment could not be solved simply by the expansion of the exterior surface: those organisms endowed with hollow structures, into which the sea water could flow, found themselves at an advantage. But it was only with the ramification of these cavities into a system of blood circulation that distribution of oxygen was guaranteed to the complex of cells, thus making terrestrial life possible. The sea where living creatures were at one time immersed is now enclosed within their bodies. – [Italo Calvino: Blood, Sea]

The world as we know it has already come to an strong change and lobal warming is perhaps the most dramatic example that affects what Timothy Morton calls “hyperobjects”— more-than-human entities of such vast temporal and spatial dimensions that they defeat traditional ideas about what a thing is in the first place, For exemple the ocean and water. Morton explains what hyperobjects are and their impact on how we think, how we coexist, and how we experience our politics, ethics, and art.

In a contemporary context that some may call a 4th revolution (Klaus Schwab) referring to a new digital paradigm and transition point to a moment in time with presence of superintelligence, IA awakening; DNA revolution, biotech; nanotech and other elements that will transform society and reality as we know it, we may arrive at a place that we shall decide what is machine and whats is human. Swiping reality, we are experiencing an age of a technologic and biologic exponential change and a new sensorial revolution.Despite of an utopian or dystopian perspective we are facing the idea of the anthropocene, current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and environment changing towards the earth surface and oceans, our carbon footprint creates radical climate change. Despite that we are still focused on an anthropocentric vision of our own world and looking to a technological and scientific escape, our body as well as landscape as a playground for atoms and molecules will transform in present times into a new physical and even spiritual paradigm, with the possibility of an existence of new hybrid species or biological based machines with cognitive augmented intelligence. The possibility of clones, holograms; and different kinds of lifeforms and data that creates questions on perceiving what is actually real. A moment time where soil, plants, animals and mankind becomes immortal data...

Coming from water, all living forms where able to grow and survive, procreate and colonise this planet and transform it. Regarding recent studies, If scientists were to draw an enormous family tree for all of Earth’s animals, the oldest branch would belong to the jellyfish (medusae). This simple form have around 95 % of water and have been surviving, due to its simplicity until now per opposition of mankind, with an extreme degree of complexity.

developing the
artwork

trough a series PHOTOGRAPHS
The artist uses the ENVIRONMENT,
in this case the water element
as his studio and canvas.
instead of representing nature with
different media in a closed studio
ENVIRONMENT, the artist creates a direct
dialogue with it’s elements and they
become the brush and the artwork by itself.

As a contemporary artist, I have always been fascinated by the intricate and often fragile relationships that exist between humans and the natural world. One particular area of interest for me has been the way in which we as humans interact with aquatic life, in this particular project I worked with Betta fishes, their natural environments and in the artificial world of the aquarium.

The Betta fish, also known as Siamese fighting fish, is a small freshwater fish that is native to Southeast Asia. In their natural environment, these fish live in shallow waters such as rice paddies, swamps, and canals. They are known for their vibrant colors and aggressive behavior, which is often used in territorial battles with other males.

However, when removed from their natural environment and placed in an aquarium, Betta fishes are often subjected to a drastically different way of life. While they may be kept in clean and controlled environments with access to food and shelter, they are also confined to a small space with limited opportunities for movement and interaction with their natural surroundings.

This artificial environment can be compared to the human experience of diaspora, where individuals are forced to leave their natural environments and migrate to new, foreign places. Like the Betta fish, humans may find themselves in new and unfamiliar surroundings, subject to new rules and restrictions, and cut off from the natural rhythms and connections of their original home.

In my work, I aim to explore the complex relationships between humans and the natural world, drawing parallels between the experiences of aquatic life and those of human diasporas. Through the use of visual art and other creative mediums, I seek to engage viewers in a conversation about the ways in which we interact with and impact the natural world, and the consequences that these interactions may have on the creatures that call it home.

OTHER ARTIST
PROJECTS FOCUS ON
THE WATER ELEMENT

The deep

Project developed in collaboration with Collective of Two, Voice by Selma Uamusse, Sound Design by Arara and curatorial text by Camila Maissune. Part of Morais Leitão Collection.
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TheDeep
2023, Non Linear Loop with AI support on 8K
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As in Édouard Glissant's Poetics of Relation (1997), The Deep is essentially the poetics of the oceanic landscape. Resulting from the collaborative process between Paulo Arraiano and CoTwo for the Morais Leitão collection, The Deep is the second moment that integrates a triptych of works that reactivate the Ocean as a space-time that brings together images, experiences and collective memories that necessarily open us to a new constellation of themes and aesthetics.
Faithful to the materialities to which he has accustomed us, between nature and technology, poetry and artificial intelligence, prosthesis and vegetable matter, Paulo Arraiano returns in this collaboration to the "amphibian thought" that characterises his work, and introduces us to a hybrid and underwater territory, of alternation between the human and the non-human.
This intertwining game is also identified in CoTwo's visual universe, where digital, nature, artificial intelligence tools and generative design intersect. Starting from the dialogue with the machine and the use of digital randomness, the collective presents a cultural and mythological oceanic universe, deeply marked by its own materiality and temporality, by verticality and rhythm.
In the convergence between the visual and narrative universes of Paulo Arraiano and CoTwo emerges, in The Deep, a deep body of water crossed by events, myths, intensities, winds and noises, even cosmic forces.
In the voice of Selma Uamusse, The Deep starts from the notion of the sea as history, which is brought to us by the Santa Lucia writer, Derek Walcott (1930-2017).
In The Sea is History (1979), Walcott offers us a narrative of identity, readable only in the interstices of the encounter between history and landscape, and within the hybrid relations of transcorporality. If, for Walcott, the ghosts of history are pieces of body and bone that, mixed with aquatic fauna and flora, become coral (…)

Shall we dance

inhale, exhale
(self breathing kit)