FROM THE CURATOR

  “Tales of the New World” is new media artist Johab Silva’s futuristic re-imagining of the discovery, arrival anAd settlement of Brazil by Portuguese colonizers in installation and immersive media. Silva’s retelling of Brazil’s colonial origin story is based loosely on a 16th century letter written by Pêro Vaz de Caminha with visual sources that range from the flora and fauna of Brazil’s jungles to the colonial architecture of Salvador, Bahia.

Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Johab Silva was intimately familiar with Brazil’s colonial history, but it was not until a 2023 trip to Salvador in the province of Bahia that the story of the conquest became tangible.  Salvador is the city just north of where Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral’s fleet first made landfall. It was there that Portugal imprinted itself on the land and its people, not only through a population of West African slaves that were brought to cultivate sugarcane, but also through art and architecture. Portugal’s presence in Salvador is still  visible through monuments to Catholic saints such as the Monumento Cruz do Pascoal [fig. 1] and Baroque cathedrals embellished with staggering gilt ornamentation [fig. 2]. Perhaps most notably, Salvador’s streets and buildings are embellished with azulejos, blue and white Portuguese glazed ceramic tiles, as seen in the cloister of the Convent of São Francisco [fig. 3]. Moved by Salvador’s natural beauty and architectural grandeur, Silva was also aware of the cruelty that the city was testament to and consequently found himself returning to Pêro Vaz de Caminha’s letter.

Pêro Vaz de Caminha was the scribe aboard the fleet of ships under the command of explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral.  Caminha’s letter, written in 1500 to the King of Manuel I of Portugal, is famed for the detail with which he recounts his first impressions of Brazil; a lush tropical landmass inhabited by a foreign peoples whose appearance and customs were unlike anything he had previously seen. “They are of dark brown, rather reddish color,” Caminha writes of the Indigenous peoples. “They go naked, with no sort of covering. They attach no more importance to covering up their private parts or leaving them uncovered than they do to showing their faces.” Later, Caminha goes into detail describing their unique form of beautification, including adornment with feathers, beads and body paint. Caminha also describes exchanges in which the Portuguese offered hats and bracelets to the natives in exchange for beads, bows and arrows, and even a multitude of exotically plumed parrots. Of the land itself, Caminiha said:

"All the coastal country from one point to the other is very flat and beautiful. As to the jungle, it seemed very large to us seen from the sea; for, look [sic] as we would, we could see nothing but land and woods, and the land seemed very extensive. Til now we have been unable to learn if there is gold or silver or any other kind of metal or iron there; we have seen none. However, the air of the country is very healthful, fresh and temperate…There is a great plenty, an infinitude of waters. The country is so well-favored that if it were rightly cultivated it would yield everything."

What strikes a contemporary reader about Caminha’s letter is its sense of breathless wonder and violent foreshadowing. Despite his best efforts to remain neutral in tone, Caminha can barely contain his sense of awe at the discovery of the land and its people. At the same time, throughout the letter, there are instances of his blatant “othering” of Brazil’s indigenous population, his sexualized observations of indigenous women and men, and his allusions to Portugal’s colonial ambitions.

Silva knew that the story of Brazil’s colonization was ripe for re-interpretation. As an artist interested in presenting counter-narratives to predominant power structures, he began working in graffiti and gradually moved into new media. Through his re-imagining of Brazil's “discovery” in video, installation, augmented and virtual reality, Silva situates us in the first contact between Brazil’s discoverers and the discovered and offers us a chance to witness the story from an omniscient perspective.

“Tales of the New World” opens theatrically, with a video projected on top of MoCA Arlington’s largest window. As the window opens, a galleon sails into view, sailing across a storm tossed, blood colored sea. From there, passing under an azulejo covered threshold into the main exhibition space, the viewer encounters four video monitors, two mounted on each wall. On each monitor, are videos of shiny abstract forms that rotate slowly, hovering in the midst of azulejo-tiled courtyards, like shimmering treasures in a video game. The objects in Silva’s videos fuse abstract elements of snakes, birds, gemstones and plants with the opulent Portuguese Baroque architecture of Salvador. Beguiling and fetishistic, these objects are intended to elicit a similar longing in the viewer as the one Caminha alludes to in his letter when describing the people and land he and the Portuguese colonists encountered. The exhibition concludes with a virtual reality experience that allows the viewer to float through a jungle to discover a monumental battle unfolding at sea just beyond the shoreline.  

What to make of this contemporary revisitation? In Silva’s own statement of purpose, his life-changing trip to Bahia “fueled my desire to uncover a crucial historical colonial event, paralleling it with present contexts, with the goal of expediting the narrative in the contemporary.” Silva goes on to say that Brazil’s “discovery” was a dual discovery for both the colonizers and the colonized, however the perspective of the Indigenous peoples were lost to history. Like many colonialist projects in the Americas, Portugal’s conquest of Brazil bred an array of far-reaching consequences that extend into its current social and political context. The ongoing deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, urban expansion, and gentrification are, in Silva’s words, the “ripple effects of human actions, urging us to pause, reflect and tread forward consciously.” Silva posits that the story of Brazil’s discovery and conquest by the Portuguese, encapsulated in Caminha’s letter, is a cautionary example of how these events reverberate throughout our own historical moment." 

 Amanda Jirón-Murphy

 Curator and Resident Artist/Collector Liaison

 Museum of Contemporary Art, Arlington, Virginia

STATEMENT

My exploration delved into pivotal documents depicting Brazil’s history, accompanied by paintings narrating Portuguese colonization—the initial encounters and their aftermath. This journey fueled my desire to uncover a crucial historical colonial event, paralleling it with present contexts, with the goal of expediting the narrative in the contemporary. The striking parallels emerge among Brazilian colonial history, the assault on the Amazon rainforest, and contemporary gentrification. 

Financial power, race, and education define dominant cultures as explorers, shaping and claiming new territories. Yet, other communities, less financially endowed, of different races or educational backgrounds, equally embody the spirit of exploration: it’s not about possession, but acknowledging diverse values, knowledge, and experiences. Communities devoid of Western education exemplify survival and resilience, thriving amidst chaos, showcasing harmony within smaller settings. The congested streets of Bombay, the favelas of Brazil, and Himalayan villages spotlight the inherent exploratory nature within each human. 

The crucial point lies not in the intent to explore or plan to, but in the response to discovery of a new place. How does one react when they encounter a new environment? Excitement, anger, sorrow, concern, curiosity? The range of emotions intertwines with planning, defining crucial moments. In Pêro’s letter, the Portugueses excitement overshadowed the unheard thoughts of the natives. It was a dual discovery, yet the Portugueses perceived it as an opportunity to expand their power and ideology, endorsed by the king and religion. Returning to the FROM THE ARTIST crux, the Portuguese missed a vital cue—a failure to recognize the native community’s sophistication, their power, as well their ideologies.

How could the educated and affluent disregard the natives’ advanced knowledge of their land, history, culture? The Brazilian natives’ insights into their natural resources should have shaped Brazil’s development, but since that first brutal encounter the South American land has served as food for dogs. The essence of a good heart’s explorer should lie in acknowledging and respecting both sides equally, learning and sharing without imposition. 

Caminha’s letter otherwise showcases the imposition of beliefs, brutal treatment of native women, and a quest for gold. The resonance with present times echoes loud and clear. Gentrified neighborhoods or decimated Amazonian forests signify irreversible losses—a detriment causing new cities to lack life’s essence. The dominant culture of the present mirrors Caminha’s actions, imposing judgment without empathy or foresight. Settlements wiped communities, plundered resources, ravaged ecosystems, and perpetuated dominance. 

The dream for colonizers was a nightmare for the colonized, breeding a spectrum of consequences. The parallels drawn between deforestation, urban expansion, gentrification, and colonization serve as mirrors to the past and present. Each narrative reveals the ripple effects of human actions, urging us to pause, reflect, and tread forward conscientiously.

Johab Silva

Resident Artist at MoCA Arlington