Home | Ilua Hauck da Silva

Achlys at the Heart of Ambiguity or Tangere me, plaster, life-size, 2018.

In Greek mythology Achlys is the eternal Night before Chaos, and the symbol of the mist of death.
Her frail hand is seen here clutching onto the chest of an Apollonian figure, which alludes to the Ancient Greek ideal of beauty.
Fragility and strength, and agony and vitality, are juxtaposed, forming an ambiguous visual dialogue between femininity and masculinity, anima and animus, and life and death.

Medusa, crystal glass, 2000-2012.

Presented as a brain formed of entwined snakes, ‘Medusa’ offers a contemporary approach to the Ancient Greek myth. Here, it is not the Gorgon's hair which is a writhing nest of serpents but the mind; a visual metaphor for the timeless conundrum of evil which afflicts the human psyche and corrupts existence. Such representational strategy complicates gender classification; hence this piece breaks away from the idea of feminine evil, and the fin-de-siècle femme fatale as the brain shape articulates evil as inherently human, regardless of sex.
‘Medusa’ is also a visual response to Sigmund Freud’s essay ‘Medusa’s Head’ (1922) in which the fear of castration and decapitation are equated. In this sculpture, the Gorgon’s cerebellum and brainstem are located within the bespoke glass plinth, thus severed from the cerebral hemispheres, which sit atop. This separation alludes to beheading, and consequently to castration, if we are to think in Freudian terms.
Cast in crystal glass ‘Medusa’ is infused with a precious, jewel-like beauty, a clinical coldness, and a medical edge. Despite its minimalist aesthetics, this piece resonates with the work of Art Nouveau glass makers René Lalique and Emille Gallé, both aesthetically and technically.

Veins of Vanity II, optical glass, life-size, 2011.

'Veins of Vanity II' is an ethereal piece which entails a conceptual presentation of a bodycast. It also provides a contemporary take on the Vanitas genre and on Victorian fashion. My own torso, cast after I wore a tight-laced corset fro over 12 hours, presents indents and scarring, which are testament to the destructiveness of vanity. Such scarring is only visible because of the distinctive property of faultless transparency inherent to optical glass, which, in this piece, has been polished to perfection on the front, and sandblasted on the back in order to preserve minute details of the indenting on the skin. 'Veins of Vanity II' therefore articulates vanity and its destructive aspects through my own vanity. The accentuated curved shape of the waistline functions as a signifier for femininity, and points to the idealisation of the feminine body in Western cultures.

Despair, plaster, life-seize, 2014-16.

Despair offers a conceptual approach to figurative sculpture. Formed of legs and arms only, it has no particular identity: individuality was deliberately not accounted for. This disembodiment of desperation presents it as simply human; gender classification is not specified and left ambiguous. Elements of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist philosophy have informed Despair – some of his ideas on anguish, responsibility, being, freedom, choice, suffering, lack, nothingness, and on despair itself reverberate in the sculpture. The absence of both body and face in Despair, and thus of a persona, renders it a (dis)personification of despair as utter void and desolation. The lack of hope, faith, and trust which are usually associated with desperation are represented here precisely by the lack of representation. Through its simultaneous presence and absence Despair viscerally communicates the plight of desperation.

The crux of my practice is to visually investigate the human condition and its conundrums: sculpted body parts and glass internal organs function as powerful signifiers for different psychological, emotional, and physical afflictions.

I explore the vastly complex notion of beauty – both aesthetically and conceptually – by combining a wealth of materials and techniques. A strong sense of the relationship between what can potentially be described as beautiful and the brutality of existence is thus deeply infused in my work.

Dadaesque interventions on Old Masters and ‘ready-mades’ articulate thoughts on social values, tensions, and injustice, and also consider the construction of history and traditions. Human anatomy, Greek mythology, Christian narratives and iconography, medicine, and Classical ideals and sculpture continue to inform my meticulous visual and theoretical vocabularies.

Cohesion between form and idea is consciously pursued or challenged, and charges my work with affecting connotations: as multiple layers of meaning unfold, the contingency of visual dialogues between crafted matter, abstract concepts, and ontological preoccupations crystallise. ©

News

March 2019: In line with the latest advice from Public Health England, the British Optical Association Museum is now closed to visitors until further notice. This means that my exhibition 'Pathos Ocularis - The Beautiful and The Curious' has been terminated early. I kindly thank those who visited the show and all who continue to support my work. It means the world to me, especially during these uncertain times.
I take this opportunity to also communicate that until September 2020 I will solely dedicate myself to my MA and focus on writing my dissertation.

Flagellation (Italian rosary), and Cilice, brass, leather, crystals, wood, enamel, 2008 and 2010.

‘Flagellation’ and 'Cilice' address and question pain as a form of redemption, as well as the place and function of beauty within the contexts of both divine sacrifice and quotidian self-sacrifice. Meticulously executed, these intricate pieces allude to the seductive opulence of ecclesiastical aesthetics; their 'gothic-baroque' characteristics enthral viewers, distracting them from their true purpose, the mortification of the body.

Exuberance, 2012, silk velvet, 24c gold, glass, 30cm x 30cm

Exuberance is part of the series 'Decadence', which was inspired the very decadence and opulence of Art Nouveau and Rococo aesthetics, as well as these movements' approach to depicting flora - that is semi-abstract and highly stylised.
Combing lavish materials such as twety-four carat gold, crystal glass, and silk velvet, this body of work explores the relationship between decadence and beauty.
Shostakovich's music, in particualr the his 5th Symphony also echoes through the Decadence series.

The Rape of the Eurozone (after Boucher), digital intervention, 2013.

The Rape of the Eurozone (after Boucher),
shows the moment Zeus, in the form of a
bull, is about to abduct and rape Europa,
a Phoenician noble woman. The digital
manipulation of this painting evokes the
playfulness of L.H.O.O.Q., by Duchamp.
The bull’s horns, replaced by the Euro
symbol, and the EU flag, which forms
a halo around Europa’s head, together
with the nymphs, who pour down the
symbols of obsolete European currencies,
re-construct this image as a satirical
observation of how Europe is being torn
apart by the adoption of the Euro. Like
Europa, Europe failed to foresee the
consequences ahead.

The Sleep of Integrity Invalidates Reason (after Goya), 2011.

This is an update on ‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters’ by Goya. In contemporary times Reason seems to be wide-awake. However, lack of integrity when applying reason, invalidates it. Warfare, corruption, and science without scrupulous, are examples of this. Hence, the wolves, owls, and bats of Goya’s original have been replaced; warplanes, and the mushroom cloud of a nuclear detonation are now seen in the background. The epitome of reason is here invalidated as Albert Einstein’s nuclear discoveries are used for destruction. The sign where the man of the Enlightenment is asleep reads ‘The Sleep of Integrity Invalidates Reason’.

Pudica Without Pose, mixed media, 2010.

'Pudica Without Pose' is an installation, which went on display at Museu Padre Lima, in Itatiba, Brazil.
It visually comments on the Pudica Pose tradition, which started with the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles - the sculpture which is claimed to be the first fetishised image of a woman.
'Pudica Without Pose' does not show the Goddess of love and sexuality. Instead, it is formed phallic shapes in laddered hold-ups, pointing to Freudian ideas to fetishism as a type of neurosis, as well as too the delicate balance between sensuality and vulgarity, and the banalisation of sexuality in post-industrialised society.

Let Them Eat Chips, mixed media, 2016.

‘Let Them Eat Chips’ was specifically made for the ‘Revolution Show’, curated by Hugo Von Hugo for the the Art Society Soho artists. The show took place at the Black and White building in Shoreditch, in November 2016. Some of the works were deemed too daring and outrageous, and were censored (!), which led to the closure of the exhibition. This was a perplexing case of censorship, given the exhibition was held in East London.
‘Let The Eat Chips’ symbolises the fact that despite the many revolutions that have already happened, essentially nothing ever changes. The fact that 'The Revolution Show' was censored seems to proves this point - lamentably - and thus highlights 'Let Them Eat Chips' pertinence.