This was my first series of latex pieces. Latex was crucial to brazilian development at a certain point, it helped to build Manaus, in the Amazon area, was like gold somehow. Today, well today we all know it is not the same. As everything, the value of things keep changing from time to time. When I choose to work with it I was discussing also value.
But also, a someone educated as a fine artist I was looking for its plastics qualities. So this was the time when I started to focus on the paint like qualities of latex.
Using clay and plaster to produce unique molds, pouring the latex and then painting many layers of latex over the pieces.

Some of these pieces were exhibited at Schmuckschau, Munich (2004)

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Comment by Mirla Fernandes on September 19, 2010 at 3:42pm
Dear Kerianne, I am not a specialist on the subject...What I know is that the extraction and trade of latex was significant to the economic and social history of Brazil. Thanks to it there were the development of the amazon region, specially the cities of Manaus, Porto Velho and Belem. Many people migrated to that region because of this commodity, and others followed once the region began to grow causing transformations. It is curious to know that they have copied the project of Paris Opera to build Manaus theater. There was so many new rich people that they wanted to have fancy things and places to go. This period of great richness in the region happened between 1879 until 1912, followed by a decay. Then between 1942 and 1945 because of the second world war there were some extra need of rubber, so there was a slight enhance in the production. Today it is not significant, proving that what is considered valuable one day can change later.
You should consider that Brazil was discovered in 1500 and for the next 400 years there was no interest of the governement in the region, because it was in the other states that the portuguese colonial governement and later the imperial brazilian governement found the richness of the land: precious stones and metals. It was really hard to get that region populated.
But with the Industrialization in Europe a interest in the natural rubber (at that point an exclusive product from that region) appeared, and soon europeans started to come to see how they would profit with it.
Soon extracting latex became a very lucrative thing to do, attracting people from the whole country, creating new villas that later became cities. Manaus and Belem were considered at that time the most developed cities in the country with electricity, and significant buildings and the new rich people baught so many diamonds ,that for sometime Manaus was the city where more diamonds were sold in the world.
The decay started with the english plantations on Asia, and by 1912 they became the leaders of the rubber market, lowing severely the prices and putting the Amazon region into an economic crisis...
Comment by kerianne quick on September 19, 2010 at 11:10am
Hi Mirla, I love your latex work and the connection you make to Brazilian "development" - is much of your work referencing external influences (social, political, economic, cultural) on perceived value? I am very interested in the notions of materials inherent ability to contribute meaning to a work. would you be willing to talk about the history of Brazilian latex with me?

thanks! Keri
Comment by Mirla Fernandes on May 14, 2010 at 3:14pm
Thanks!
Comment by Brigitte Martin on May 14, 2010 at 3:06pm
Love this piece, Mirla. Thanks for posting !

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