That's How I Was Taught (2005/2014): in an plexiglass box, an Art History book shows reproductions of paintings. On the wall, oils on canvas reproduce the works in the exact same size, color and arrangement in which they are printed in the book.
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Foi assim que me ensinaram (That’s how I was taught) [2005], the “oldest” work in this exhibition, is the only one not to present a precious element to all others shown: the ostensive use of digital processes in its elaboration. On the other hand, is an iconic piece of the logic under which conforms the artist’s leimotiv. Small oil paintings reproduce seminal works of late modernist and contemporary art present in art history books; the record adopted by the artist on the making, however, follows exactly the characteristics of the printed reproductions, and not those of the original paintings. So the colors [or lack thereof] and dimensions [diminutive] of those paintings will be now arranged exactly as they are in the books or magazines from which they were selected, generating an improbable group of replica or delicate little canvases “as-seen-on-book”, playing with the supposed original grandeur of some of these works [of which the most emblematic case is that of the Barnett Newman there reproduced]. A game of image and representation, where the painting is a faithful and literal representation of that image which in turn is at once matrix and mere representation [printed] of the painting. In this semi-tautological operation, Felipe comments in an ironic and delectable form a typical situation of contact with the art and repertoire formation of artists and art lovers in general. These processes are traditionally built [especially in countries outside the Europe-US axis, where access to good museums is less feasible] from reproductions in books and magazines, always more within view than museums of excellence – and, more recently, also widely available on the Internet.
Excerpt from "Open Source", text by Guy Amado for the folder of the exhibition "Felipe Cama" at SESC Ribeirão Preto, 2010.
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