Love and memory: The art of Mayara Ferrão

The woman from Salvador has always liked and engaged with art since childhood. Currently, she is studying Visual Arts and has been working with Artificial Intelligence, re-signifying the affection between black women. Mayara believes that this series is more than just images - it is a process of collective healing.

We spoke with Mayara a bit about art in her life in general, her creative process, and also about her current works. Check it out below:

• What were your first immersive contacts with art? Was it since you were little? Or was it a passion that arose during your life?

I have always liked art since I was a child. I didn’t know it was called art, but my favorite play has always been to draw, paint, glue, write, sing, perform. My mother always encouraged me, and looking back, I realize that it helped a lot in the daily life with 4 children to deal with at the same time. I’ve always been the quiet, introspective, and very creative one. I could entertain myself with my art, loved spending hours immersed in my world. And my parents, in their own way, understood that this was the path that would make me happy. So we always knew I would study art, I grew up wanting that, and prepared for the moment in my life when I would study art in college. And that’s how it flowed. I took the entrance exam for visual arts, I passed, I’m almost graduating, and I try to follow the path I agreed upon with my inner child. In my mind, it would be less complex, but here we are.

• ⁠Tell us a bit about your creative process; after all, you work with various types of artistic expression, such as painting and illustration.

My artistic process is very natural and simple, without much mystery. It always starts in thought, then goes to writing. When I’m going to draw, I don’t work with a drawing draft; I usually construct it in my head and outline it in writing.

I initially started working with illustration because drawing was the first tool that stimulated me, so I have a more spontaneous affinity. But photography, creative and aesthetic thinking, and audiovisual have always attracted me a lot, so I became interested in that as well.

It’s a process that happens in parallel. I work with illustration/painting and also with photography, audiovisual, and creative direction. In my mind, everything is very connected because what truly moves me is the construction of the images I want to see and feel. Artistic expressions are tools for constructing these narratives.

• Your most recent series using artificial intelligence portrays the affection between women. What is the significance of all this for you?

My research with artificial intelligence has a political significance. When I create photographs and documents portraying black and indigenous women expressing their affections in a historical colonial context, I am challenging a narrative of oppression, silences, violence, gaps, and invisibility that is laid bare in the colonial photographic archives of Brazil. That has always bothered me a lot.

Black and indigenous women were always portrayed in a stereotypical manner as exotic, servile, and hypersexualized figures, always corresponding to the prevailing racist and sexist gaze in society.

There is a lack of historical documentation, whether photographic or textual, related to the exchange of affection between black and indigenous women from a loving perspective, and it is important to recognize that these gaps in historical representation do not mean that these women and these loves did not exist, or that their stories are invalid. It was in the face of this discomfort that I had the insight to create these photographs, fictionalizing and revealing these forgotten love stories.

• I feel that, in a way, this representation of black and indigenous women is, above all, revolutionary. How do you think this intersects with the fact that you are using a technology that is also, in the end, revolutionary?

Talking about black and indigenous women, highlighting their affections, wills, and desires from a perspective of freedom is already revolutionary in itself. These are images of power that impact other women in a very profound and beautiful way.

It was bold of me to appropriate artificial intelligence in this complex moment of discussion about the legitimacy of its use, but I feel that pointing to the past was very potent. The intersection of artificial intelligence, history, and art offers me an opportunity to question and reimagine dominant historical narratives, bringing to light voices and experiences that have been historically silenced. This is especially powerful at a time when technology often reproduces and amplifies prejudices and inequalities. Instead, I try to use the potential of technology to create images that discuss sexuality and affective construction around such a bitter trauma.

• Lastly, what does all this represent for you? How do you hope people receive this concept you created behind the series?

As an artist, I feel encouraged to contribute to the construction of a more just, inclusive, and affectionate imaginary for us women in the memory of Brazil. An imaginary that I would like to see and that serves as much inspiration and affection for me, for my pains and traumas, but that also traverse other women.

I think it’s beautiful to imagine love stories and the possibility of sharing them with other people as well. It is a collective healing process. I want to create works that promote voices that are often minimized and silenced, just like mine as a black woman.