The kiss of the missing link and Almost Infinite
“The thickness of the sign, whether its meaning or its physical aspects, can become even more compressed. This is the case with the canvas entitled Almost Infinite (Quase Infinito), where the same catalyzing principle of oxidation was used, offering us a design close to a horizontal figure-eight, the cipher that Jorge Luis Borges explained (regarding 1001 Nights) consists of the contact with zero, split between the end and the new beginning. But in this case the sinuous line does not cross itself but remains on the boundaries of the enunciation. It is as though the drawing of the cipher, burdened by the rusted material, refuses to assume an explicitly ethereal dimension, preferring to suggest a vital throbbing force.
Stressing the ductility of the sign, testing it as in the case of the horizontal figure-eight equivalent to the infinite, the artist manages to create disturbing images, such as The Kiss of the Missing Link (O Beijo do Elo Perdido). In this canvas, the ostensive physicality of the sign is replaced by its capacity to stimulate the imagination. On a smooth, flat gray ground, two sculptural symmetrical heads, enigmatic heads, perhaps of birds, also gray and stripped of predicates other than the gaping holes of their eyes, couple through their mouths or beaks, intertwining in a kiss that blends them into a single body, a kiss that turns their clearly-outlined contours into a symbol of the infinite. The faint lighting comes from above, making them stand out from the ground, and producing shadows that conceal the extent to which they are separate from it or are outcrops. From the sign representing the infinite to the representation of a spiral trajectory, it is worth noting that these are forms that contrast with the monotony of the circular movement. The symbolism of the spiral line suggests that the return to the starting point takes place at a new level, and is not mere repetition.
The spiral contradicts any mistaken belief that everything has already been done. To the contrary, it fosters the notion that, although it is not possible to be the first, it is possible to invent something new, and that difference is born from repetition. Senise’s poetics feed on the transit between different materials and ideas, always guaranteeing the thickness of the results, as though the density of the canvas were the confirmation that this is a field grounded on experience and that is later hung before our eyes.”
(excerpt from text “The Piano Factory, by Agnaldo Faria, published in Daniel Senise. The Piano Factory, Andrea Jakobsson Estúdio, Rio de Janeiro, 2002)
