Two panels by Brazilian artist HeloÀsa Crocco decorate the entry hall of Hilton Creek, in Dubai. HeloÀsa produces paintings with wooden textures and was invited by the Uruguayan architect who designed the hotel, Carlos Ott, to collaborate in decorating the place.
All the works of art by the designer, who has her studio in Porto Alegre, capital of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, are made by applying small pieces of wood to panels.
The pictures put up in Hilton Creek, a five star hotel that is five kilometers away from the Dubai World Trade Centre, are two meters wide and ten meters tall, and were made out of raw wood.
Carlos Ott became interested in the work developed by the artist after seeing it exhibited in a restaurant in the city of Belo Horizonte, capital of the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
The architect is known for having designed the Bastille Opera House, inaugurated in Paris, France, in 1989.
The works of art made for the hotel in the Emirates, shipped to the country about two years ago, are the only ones that Heloísa Crocco has sold to an Arab country.
The designer states, however, that she wishes to participate in exhibitions so as to further publicise her work in the region. She has already had over 30 international exhibitions and has sold in France, Holland, Germany, and Uruguay.
Heloísa’s work is technically defined as wall design. According to the artist, what attracts the greatest attention to her work on the foreign market is the environmental appeal.
The pieces of wood used in the murals are pieces of wood left after the setting up of fences. “The new order on the planet is re-use,” she said.
Handcraft and Design
She is known in Rio Grande do Sul for joining handcraft and design. Heloísa has already participated in various projects for the sponsoring of handcraft in poor communities.
One of them was developed in the city of Ouro Preto, a historical city in Minas Gerais. Heloísa coordinated workshops that made it possible for local artisans to supply products made out of soapstone to retail chain Tok & Stok.
In Rio Grande do Sul, the designer has participated in project Mão Gaúcha, for revitalization of local handcraft.
The objective has always been to make the artisans use their own environment as the theme for their works.
In Ouro Preto, for example, instead of producing Buddhas and elephants, global symbols, the communities have stared making products in the Baroque style, on which the entire architecture of the city is based.
“The artists have noticed that they can use the local fauna and flora for handcraft.”
Heloísa developed similar work outside the country, in Uruguay. She was called, in 1997, to re-guide the work of wood artists who operated in cooperatives.
“The group was losing market due to globalisation,” she stated.
The designer’s mission was to make the artisans bring local identity to their work, which ended up occurring through exploration of the Uruguayan fauna and flora and historic elements in the country.
Forms for Wood
The artist called her style of use of combinations of wooden shapes “Topomorphosis project”. That is, the act of giving shape (morphosis) to the top of a tree.
The project, which was born after a visit to the Amazon in 1986, was the theme of an individual exhibition by the artist in Osaka, Japan, in 1990.
At the beginning of next year, Heloísa will officially inaugurate her studio in Vila Conceição, in Porto Alegre, with the release of a new collection of wood applied to paper, cloth and pottery. The studio was entirely made out of wood.
Heloísa is graduated in arts at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Ufrgs) and specialized at the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS).
She also took courses at Cardiff’s College of Art in London, England, and taught textile design at the University of Los Andes, in Colombia.
ANBA – Brazil-Arab News Agency
