Tonico Lemos Auad features in Gasworks Charity Auction, held in collaboration with Christie's

Tonico Lemos Auad (b. 1968 in Belém, Brasil) lives and works in London, England. Auad has exhibited internationally with works that are inspired by both his cultural heritage and that also investigate materiality, sensuality, process and the relationship between the audience and their environment.

 

Once a sweet delicacy, the ‘Black Pineapple/Lime' in the more recent work by Auad, has become an emblem of both fragility and sustainability; a simultaneously playful and dark sculpture. Auad explores the delicate and precise angles found on the surface of the tropical fruit together with handcrafted techniques using embroidered linen. Here, a smaller white form hangs by its side creating both an acute aesthetic contrast and initiating a strong visual vertical of the objects together in space. Using a particular Brazilian method of folding and sewing entitled ‘fuxico', the hanging sculpture at first appears incredibly delicate but is held tightly in place by this intricate stitching. Here, loose threads are also left to hang free like roots. Its form captures light and shadow as it hovers gently by a single fibre. Indigenous to South America, the pineapple casts memories of exotic lands and foreign hospitality.