Cinza

(Ash)

The title Cinza (“Ash” or “Grey”) evokes a state of matter marked by transformation and the loss of its original form. This is a particularly significant theme in Rui Chafes’s artistic practice: he works iron through fire, forging, and welding, before covering it with dark surfaces that tend to soften the material’s recognisable physical qualities. The sculpture thus emerges from a paradox: an extremely resistant material is transformed into something that appears fragile, silent, and almost immaterial. The relationship with the exhibition space further reinforces this tension between physical presence and apparition. This work can be understood as an ambiguous presence, poised between matter and immateriality, permanence and dissolution. Its dialogue with the space in which it is installed therefore becomes essential to the way it is perceived.