Caxias

Woodcut print on Werkdruck paper (Edition of 12), 60 x 50 cm, €550

My hometown of Caxias is a small, poor town in northeastern Brazil. It preserves the ancient traditions of the Yoruba African culture to this day. Caxienses are very Catholic, and at the same time very superstitious. Folk dances are part of Caxias’s world.

This piece is from Dreams and Memories, a series of 25 woodcuts I made to honor my beloved hometown of Caxias in Brazil’s Maranhão State. Caxienses are very religious and superstitious people, practicing traditions that come from Yoruba African, indigenous, and Portuguese cultures. The exhibition was held in the small town’s beautiful mansion of Mr. A. Silva, Caxias’s richest man—a place of fear and curiosity.