Meditations
on collaborative work with Daniela Carneiro Lino
In March of 2023, I met Daniela in our studio, Dentro, in preparation to begin work for her upcoming exhibition at the gallery space titled: ‘Para Continuar Nao a Saber – To continue not knowing’
Daniela is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and sound. Her work translates a movement in symbiosis, with her studies and practices of Yoga, Vedanta and Astrology, which inform and guide the relationship established with the intention of her processes. She has been dedicated to the practice of Yoga since 2011 and has been teaching since 2018.
From the very first moment, we had a sense of mutual understanding. Daniela is one of those people whose energy emanates everywhere she goes. From a request to add a layer of sound to her exhibition, we delved into possible manifestations of the process as reflections of the continuum of perceived ‘time’, which is a mutual thread we explore. Her work exposes layers of materiality through time-based manipulations, on various mediums, and that was the point of the composition which we set out to compose. Daniela is also practicing Vedanta meditation and uses the Shruti Box in her practice. We decided to use this as the base material for the entire composition. Through the gradual introduction of multiple tones, we could emphasize several harmonics developing over time. With the Ambisonic spatialization capabilities in the Dentro Gallery space, we could move the overtones in space, making the composition travel in unexpected ways, basing the overtone envelopments on chance composition and stochastic processes. The whole process was so fluid and fruitful, from concept to conception, that we were both determined to work more together, in the not-so-far future.
fast forward 2 months, and Daniela approached me for a new exhibition where she would present an installation as part of Serie Equilibrio, at Hotelier-O, in Porto.
Of course, I was immediately on board! the installation was set at the entrance, facing the street through a big glass window. We decided to use the glass window as part of the composition itself, utilizing the Shruti Box once again, added with Harmonica. The idea was to represent the meditation practice Daniela does and allow the overtones and resonances that do not exist in the original sound piece to be amplified, emanating from the glass, using electric transducers. The piece, titled ‘Sopro Psicoacustica’ relates the breath of the shruti, the harmonica, with these ethereal harmonics and resonances, which exist in the materiality of the piece, making it a truly site-specific installation.
During the process of preparation for the installation, we recorded a long meditation practice where Daniela was playing the Shruti and Harmonica simultaneously, focusing on her breath. The composition itself came from one single segment which became our theme, and from which, the rest of the piece sprung out.
following these fruitful collaborations, I was left with a lot of recordings from Daniela’s mediations, which we recorded.
We decided together that it would be appropriate to release these to the world, as an album of short meditations on the breath.