Keywords: Ritual Economy, Circulation of Natural Resources, Healing of Material Culture & Sacred Commodification

Installation view of Commodity of Natural Resources, featuring 25 oil paintings on raw jute (24 × 18 cm and 24 × 30 cm). Exhibition at Josilda da Conceição Gallery, 2026.

My paintings investigate the transformation of nature into commodity, focusing on flowers, seeds, medicinal plants, and the rural biodiversity of the Amazon. These living organisms are not approached merely as botanical specimens or economic resources, but as carriers of ancestral knowledge, ecological memory, and cultural identity. Within many Indigenous cosmologies, plants exist as active participants in complex systems of reciprocity, healing, and spiritual relationships rather than as objects of extraction. My work explores the tension between these holistic worldviews and the global economic structures that reduce biodiversity to market value, intellectual property, or industrial raw material.

The paintings draw upon Indigenous knowledge systems in which medicinal plants, seeds, and forest ecologies form interconnected networks that sustain both human and non-human life. These systems challenge Western notions of ownership and productivity by emphasizing stewardship, collective memory, and interdependence. As traditional ecological knowledge increasingly becomes the subject of commercial exploitation—from pharmaceuticals to agribusiness—my work questions who benefits from these processes and what forms of knowledge are erased or appropriated in the transition from forest to commodity.

By bringing together botanical imagery, Indigenous epistemologies is central to this investigation. Each painting is created on raw jute fabric, a coarse agricultural textile historically associated with the global circulation of commodities such as coffee, cacao, spices, grains, and other colonial trade goods. The untreated jute functions not only as a support but also as a conceptual element, carrying within its fibres the histories of labour, extraction, migration, and commerce. Its porous surface evokes both the fragility of ecological systems and the enduring material traces of colonial economies and the material language of jute, the paintings become sites where ecological, political, and historical narratives intersect. They invite viewers to reconsider the value of natural resources beyond economic frameworks and to reflect on alternative ways of relating to landscapes grounded in care, reciprocity, and coexistence rather than extraction and profit.

Develops from an ongoing research into the circulation of natural materials, focusing on the historical and contemporary movement of flowers used in medicinal practices and bodily rituals. The project examines how flowers—transported in jute bags across local and transnational routes—transform in meaning as they shift between spiritual, therapeutic, and economic systems.

Drawing from ethnobotany, trade histories, and ritual studies, the research considers flowers not only as organic matter, but as symbolic carriers of healing, protection, and cultural memory. Particular attention is given to informal economies and traditional markets, where natural resources circulate as both commodities and vessels of inherited knowledge.

Through repetition in painting and the recurring presence of the jute bag as both sculptural motif and symbolic container, the work reflects on processes of preservation, displacement, and exchange. The series questions when and how sacred materials become commercial goods, and whether ritual value can coexist with market logic.

By translating research into painterly compositions, the project connects material investigation with visual language, positioning flowers as active agents within broader systems of care, spirituality, and global trade.

Ruda silvestre (2026) Oil on jute, 24 x 30 cm

Ruda is widely used in homeopathic and traditional medicine. It is known for helping treat varicose veins, intestinal parasites, and menstrual pain, as it can act on blood vessels and has healing, antiparasitic, and analgesic properties, offering various health benefits.

Ruda is most commonly used in the form of tea, which can be prepared from fresh or dried leaves and flowers. This tea may be consumed or applied externally to cleanse the eyes, skin, or hair.

It can also be used as a poultice. To prepare it, two tablespoons of fresh rue leaves are crushed into a paste and applied directly to the affected area. This method is traditionally used to relieve rheumatic pain, treat varicose veins, and support wound healing.

Overview shot of the exhibition Airtropology: The Space Between Us, Josilda da Conceição Gallery, 2026

Copa de oro, (2026) - Oil on jute, 20 x 20 cm

Tendedero (2026) Oil on jute, 24 x 30 cm

private collection

Floripondio Rosa (2026) Oil on jute, 30 x 24 cm

private collection