Carnival: Rio Samba School, Brazil 2019

Curator: This feels strangely soothing, like staring at pale sand after a rain. Editor: Well, you might be on to something, as we’re looking at Howardena Pindell’s “Carnival: Rio Samba School, Brazil”, created in 2019. It's a mixed-media piece with acrylic paint that invites a closer look. Curator: "Carnival" is such a bold title! But here it’s whispering, almost coy. I see circles and meandering lines—symbols often linked to wholeness or cycles of time. Is she using the form to suggest that cyclical nature of celebration, the yearly return? Editor: Perhaps. The image evokes that cultural memory, for sure, but knowing Pindell, I also read a critique of the spectacle inherent in carnival traditions. Pindell's work has often addressed socio-political issues. Are these shimmering dots confetti or something more sinister, like wounds or signs of erasure? Curator: An intriguing thought. Dots in Indigenous cultures can symbolize ancestors, stars, stories. The color choices— primarily shades of pale pink—feel interesting, potentially subversive, disrupting stereotypical notions of festive Brazilian identity. It's deliberately not the vibrant greens and yellows most associate with Rio. Editor: Precisely! This paleness seems very intentional. In a country historically shaped by complex racial dynamics, it speaks volumes to me, hinting at erasure, the filtering of history. And the way museums historically have framed the narrative around Carnival? How does an artist address such things directly? Curator: Pindell gives it all this incredible material presence. The built-up layers, the tactile quality…she creates an artifact rather than simply a representation, imbuing her symbolism with embodied weight. Editor: Which invites further engagement. How can we look deeper to understand cultural representations within art spaces themselves? It’s a call to consider not just the image, but its historical context, where such imagery exists. Curator: Looking at it again, it holds both a feeling of serenity, and tension that draws on the artist's experience. Editor: Yes, this "Carnival" invites us to contemplate spectacle and history's lasting impacts.