Disappearing


Photographic print, 180 x 90 cm, 2012

This photographic piece stems from a video performance exploring the body’s presence in time.

Captured as still frames, then digitally processed, the image shows the body in slow, deliberate disappearance
—its contours softened by movement, memory, and repetition. A meditation on absence and trace.




Dressing Up and Down


Stretcher frames (pine) and cotton thread, 170 x 170 x 100 cm, 2012
In Dressing Up and Down, a three-hour performance slowly weaves cotton thread
through wooden grids, gradually enclosing both structure and performer. 
The act evokes gestures of dressing, protection, and exhaustion
—binding performer and object into a single, layered form.




Waiting

Vídeo 16:9 - 4:46 min - 2012


In Waiting, silence becomes a form of presence.
With no audio, the duration and stillness take on a palpable texture.
Time stretches, and the act of waiting becomes a silent performance of its own.



The Sleeping Layers

Vídeo 16:9 - 36:37 min - 2013


In The Sleeping Layers, participants are outlined as they lie in stillness,
while the artist sings a lullaby once sung by her grandmother.
Through this intimate gesture, memory and care take form
—layering sound and drawing into a suspended moment of affection and remembrance.



Support


Pine wood, Chinese paper, and India inkt, 200 x 100 cm x 70 cm, 2013

This sculpture emerged from a durational performance in which participants were outlined as they slept. 
Built slowly over months, Support combines drawing, memory, and architectural form
—evoking a bed-like structure that speaks to care, vulnerability, and the passage of time.




Language

Vídeo 16:9 - 36:37 min - 2013


Through the act of painting while immersed in recorded speech, the piece explores how movement and concentration create bridges between inner experience and collective language. Sound and gesture layer together, transforming the studio into a reflective space of material and spoken expression.

The Body, Between Life and Painting



Where does painting end and life begin? In this series, the body becomes both subject and tool—moving between gesture, memory, and materiality. Each piece starts from an essential human act—sleeping, dressing, speaking—and unfolds into layered performances, objects, and visual traces.

Working alone in the studio, I explored the performative act not as spectacle, but as research. These works were created in absence of an audience, yet always with the viewer in mind—inviting them into a space where time is felt, not seen; where the trace of the body lingers in thread, fabric, and sound.

Rooted in a feminine and autobiographical perspective, this project reflects on tradition, intimacy, and the porous boundary between art and everyday life. Inspired by the work of Helena Almeida, Lourdes Castro, and others, I questioned what it means to paint—not just with brush and pigment, but with presence and action.

A project of embodiment and transformation, still resonating in my practice today.





Fine Arts Degree – Final Project: [Read the Full Text]

o corpo, entre a vida e a pintura /
The  body, between life and painting


This project was developed in 2013 as the final work of my Fine Arts degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP), and marks a turning point in my practice—where the body became central not just as a subject, but as a medium of artistic exploration.

The works emerged from a process of solitary research in the studio, where I investigated the relationship between gesture, repetition, and the passage of time. Using my own body as a tool and presence, I explored actions such as sleeping, dressing, and waiting—not as performances for an audience, but as lived experiences transformed into painting, sculpture, sound, and video.

This was also the first time I integrated textile, video, and performative elements into my visual work—laying the foundation for what would become key aspects of my practice in the years to follow.


The project was first presented in 2013 in two group exhibitions in Portugal:

P3 – Painting, Practice and Thought –  Maia Forum, Maia, 2013

Intersecto –  Pinto Leite Palace, Porto, 2013


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