Her Biennial installation features several stones across the floor. They\u2019re reminiscent of human figures, of phalluses, of women wearing veils, of hands calling out to the skies or whatever other elements visitors\u2019 imaginations may conjure. One of the upright stones, its inner violet-tinged amethyst showing, marks the beginning of a set that resembles a river, or the tracks left behind by a meteorite \u2013 or Ilha Brasilis<\/em> (Island Brasilis), the exhibition\u2019s title.<\/p>\n The show\u2019s opening text at the entrance to the hall illustrates the artist\u2019s thoughts regarding her own work: \u201cI got to look at these stones more and more as human beings, because they had human shapes. The more I\u2019d look at their narrative, the more they\u2019d tell me. I found testimonies of the analogy between human being and stone, and of the extent to which we have ultimately been imagined by Earth,\u201d Denise\u2019s exhibition text reads.<\/p>\n Denise\u2019s installations in Brazil and the world over are variations on the stones theme in its wildest possibilities, reflection- and exploration-wise. Permanent artworks of Denise\u2019s are featured in the S\u00e3o Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM)\u2019s Sculpture Garden, the Pelourinho<\/em> in Salvador, Bras\u00edlia\u2019s Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil<\/em>, Chicago\u2019s Museum Campus, etc. Her work has been on show numerous times in places including New York, USA; Hannover, Germany; Assisi, Italy; and many other locations in Brazil and elsewhere.<\/p>\n The stone is always the starting point in discussing humanity. \u201cWe\u2019re facing 130 million-year-old stones here. They survived the roughest of clashes of matter. They persist. They manage to create their own integrity and individuality. What is this mystery that allows them to survive?\u201d, Denise inquires. The artist scours the depths of earth for her work material and her thinking. The way basalt and quartz share the space with amethyst speak of coexistence to Denise. \u201cI discovered the notion of coexistence through the drama of matter,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n By picking Denise\u2019s work for the solo show, the Biennial\u2019s curator Gabriel P\u00e9rez-Barreiro brought this kind of perspective into the event. \u201cWe\u2019re not used to seeing stones in an art context. You\u2019ll see them as jewelry, as souvenirs, as very consumption-related things. Denise brings stones to a different place, as a source of learning, of experience, a source of connection with reality that\u2019s underneath our feet. They\u2019re supporting us all the time, yet we don\u2019t think about them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As she wove up her own storyline, Denise gradually realized that her work was strongly connected with her Arab background. Denise\u2019s art delves into family history as it inquires about survival, which is what the early Arab immigrants came looking for in Brazil. She drew on minor aspects of a loving family life: the little stone box she got from her father as a kid; the stories in an Egyptian magazine her grandfather used to read; the stones in the Moorish architecture of her grandparents\u2019 home.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/denise3-1024x696.jpg\")
<\/a>